



February 22, 1889, 



geCIETY 0F 



3@fi3 ©P THE I^EV0IjaTI@N 



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Incorporated under the Laws of tlje State of New-York 
JJay 3, 1884 



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KEW-YORK 

THE DE YlKHE PRESS 

1888 



L>_ uCj O C-^ 



Gift 

Mra. JuUftU Ja««« 

1912 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




011 697 543 '"9" 



OFFICERS. 



P^^'^'^i- Vice-President: 

Frederick S. Tallmadge. Floyd Clarkson. 

Secretary : 

James Mortimer Montgomery. 

Treasurer: j?„„, i 

Registrar : 

Arthur Melvin Hatch. Asa Coolidge Warren. 

Histona7i : 

Austin Huntington. 



Board of Managers: 

John B. Ireland, Geo. Clinton Genet, Henry W. Le Roy 
James Duane Livingston, Geo. Parsons Lathrop, John C. Jay' 
M. D., Rev. Brockholst Morgan, William Gaston Hamilton! 
Robert F. Bixby. 



Officers of the Society from its Organization, 
December 4TH, 1883: 



EUcUd. 



1883 
1885 
1885 
1886 



1888 



Austin Huntington, 
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1884 

1886 
1888 



Presidents. R'^""^' 

1883 John Austin Stevens, 

1884 Frederick S. Tallmadge, 

Vice-Presidents. 

1883 John Cochrane, 

1884 Thomas Henry Edsall, 
1886 Elbridge T. Gerry, 
1888 Floyd Clarkson, 

Secretaries. 

1883 Austin Huntington, »^4 

1884 Geo. W. W. Houghton, ^ 
,886 James Mortimer Montgomery, 

Treasurers. 

1885 

Geo. H. Potts, ^ 

1885 
F. T. Huntington, ^ 

AUSTIN Huntington, 

Asa Coolidge Warren, '^7 

1887 Arthur Melvin Hatch, 

Registrar. 

1887 Asa Coolidge Warren. 

Historian. 



Incorporated under the laws of the State of 
New- York, May 3D, 1884. 



Incorporators. 

John Austin Stevens, 

John Cochrane, 

Austin Huntington, 
*Geo. H. Potts, 

Frederick S. Tallmadge, 

Geo, W. W. Houghton, 

Asa Bird Gardiner, 

Thos, H. Edsall, 
*JOSEPH W. Drexel, 

James Mortimer Montgomery, 

James Duane Livingston, 

Alexander R. Thompson, Jr. 



"SONS OF THE REVOLUTION.", 

Whereas, it has become only too evident, from the steady 
dedine of proper celebration of our national holidays, — the 
Fourth of July, Washington's Birthday, etc., — that popular 
interest in the events and men of the War of the Revolution 
is gradually fading away ; 

And, Whereas, we believe that this lack of interest is to 
be attributed, not so much to lapse of time and to the 
rapidly increasing flood of immigration from foreign coun- 
tries, as to the neglect on the part of descendants of Revolu- 
tionary heroes to perform their duty of keeping before the 
public mind the memory of the services of their ancestors and 
of the times in which they lived : 

Therefore, the Society of the Sons of the REVOLU- 
TION has been incorporated, to perpetuate the memory 
of the men who in miUtary, naval or civil service, by their 
acts or counsel, achieved American Independence ; to pro- 
mote the proper celebration of the anniversaries of Washing- 
ton's Birthday, the Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, 
the Fourth of July, the Evacuation of New-York by the 
British, and other prominent events relating to or connected 
with the War of the Revolution ; to collect and secure for 
preservation the manuscript rolls, records and other docu- 
ments relating to the War of the Revolution; to inspire 
among the members of the Society and their descendants 
the patriotic spirit of their forefathers ; and to promote 
social intercourse and the feeling of fellowship among its 
members. 




CONSTITUTION, 



ARTICLE I. 

The name of the Society shall be " Sons of the Revolu- 
tion." 

ARTICLE II. 
The Society shall be perpetual. 

ARTICLE IIL 
The purpose of the Society is to keep alive among ourselves and 
our descendants the patriotic spirit of the men who, in military, 
naval or ci\dl service, by their acts or counsel, achieved American 
Independence; to collect and secure for preservation the manu- 
script rolls, records and other documents relating to the War of the 
Revolution; and to promote social intercourse and good feeling 
among its members now and hereafter. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Any person shall be eligible for membership in the Society who 

is a male above the age of twenty-one (21) years, a resident of the 

State of New-York, and who is descended from an ancestor who, 

either as a military or naval officer, soldier, sailor, or as an official 

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or recognized subordinate in the service of any one of the thirteen 
original Colonies or States, or of the National Government rep- 
resenting or composed of those Colonies or States, assisted in 
establishing American Independence during the War of the Revolu- 
tion ; and no person other than such shall be eligible to member- 
ship in the Society. 

Provided that any person having an office in the State of Nevp- 
York for the regular transaction of business shall be deemed a 
resident of the State of New- York for the purposes of the Society. 

ARTICLE V. 

Whenever seven or more persons, non-residents of the State of 
New- York, but all residing in any one other State or Territory 
of the United States, shall present to the officers of the Society, 
designated by the by-laws to judge of the qualification of candidates 
for membership, proof which shall satisfy said officers that they are 
suitably qualified, the officers shall so report at the next meeting of 
the Society. The Society may then, or at any subsequent meeting, 
authorize the said seven or more persons so qualified as incorpo- 
rators to organize an auxiliary branch of the Society in the State or 
Territory in which they reside. Provided, however, that only one 
auxiliary branch shall be created in each State or Territory. 

ARTICLE VI. 

The officers of the Society shall be a President, a Vice-President, 
a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Board of Managers, consisting of 
those officers ex-officio, and nine other members. 

ARTICLE VII. 
This Constitution shall be altered, amended or repealed only by 
a vote of three-fourths of the members of the Society present, at a 
meeting specially called for the purpose of such alteration, amend- 
ment or repeal, after five days' notice in writing having been given 
of such meeting. 




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BY-LAWS. 



SECTION I. 

Members shall be elected as follows : Candidates may send their 
names and documents, or other proofs of qualification for member- 
ship, to the Board of Managers ; and, upon a favorable report from 
said board, and upon payment of the initiation fee, shall thereupon 
become members of the Society. 

SECTION II. 

The initiation fee shall be five dollars ($5.00), the annual dues 
three dollars ($3.00) ; or the payment at one time of fifty dollars 
($50.00) shall constitute a life member; and the member so paying 
shall be exempt from the payment of annual dues. 

SECTION III. 

That in order to form funds which may be respectable, and assist 
the unfortunate, all life-membership fees or donations which shall 
hereafter be paid the Society shall remain forever to the use of the 
Society; the interest only of which, if necessary, to be appropriated 
to the relief of the unfortunate. 

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SECTION IV. 

The Society shall hold an annual meeting on the fourth day of 
December, 1884, and in each and every year thereafter, at which 
a general election of officers by ballot shall take place, except when 
such date shall fall on Sunday, in which event the meeting shall be 
held on the following day. In such election, a majority of the bal- 
lots given for any officer shall constitute a choice; but if, on the first 
ballot, no person shall receive such majority, then a further balloting 
shall take place in which a plurality of votes given for any officer 
shall determine the choice. 

But inasmuch as by the law of the State of New-York, under 
which this Society shall be incorporated, it is provided that the 
names of the Board of Managers for the first year shall appear in 
the certificate of incorporation, no election of a new Board of Mana- 
gers shall be held until the fourth day of December, 1885, but the 
present Board of Managers shall continue in office until that time. 

SECTION V. 

At all meetings of the Society fifteen (15) members shall consti- 
tute a quorum for the transaction of business, except at a meeting 
called under Article VII. of the Constitution. 

SECTION VI. 

The President, or in his absence the Vice-President, or in his 
absence a chairman /rj tempore, shall preside at all meetings of the 
Society, and shall have a casting vote. He shall preserve order, 
and shall decide all questions of order, subject to an appeal to the 
Society. 

SECTION VII. 

The Secretary shall conduct the general correspondence of the 
Society. He shall notify all members of their election and of such 
other matters as he may be directed by the Society. He shall have 
charge of the seal, certificate of incorporation, by-laws and records 
of the Society. He, together with the presiding off.cer, shall certify 
all acts of the Society. He shall, under the direction of the Presi- 
dent or Vice-President, give due notice of the time and place of 



all meetings of the Society, and attend the same. He shall keep 
fair and accurate records of all the proceedings and orders of the 
Society ; and shall give notice to the several officers of all votesj 
orders, resolves, and proceedings of the Society affecting them or 
appertaining to their respective duties. 

SECTION VIII. 

The Treasurer shall collect and keep the funds and securities of 
the Society ; and so often as those funds shall amount to one hun- 
di-ed dollars, they shall be deposited in some bank in this city to the 
credit of Sons of the Revolution, and shall be drawn thence 
on the check of the Treasurer for the purposes of the Society only. 
Out of these funds he shall pay such sums only as may be ordered 
by the Society, or by the Board of Managers. He shall keep a true 
account of his receipts and payments, and, at each annual meeting, 
render the same to the Society, when a committee shall be appointed 
to audit his accounts. 

SECTION IX. 

If, from the annual report of the Treasurer, there shall appear to 
be a balance against the Treasurer, no appropriation of money shall 
be made for any object but the necessary current expenses of the 
Society until such balance shall be paid. 

SECTION X. 

The Board of Managers shall be thirteen, namely, the President, 
Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer, ex-officio, and the remain- 
ing nine elected as hereinbefore provided for the election of the 
officers of the Society. 

They shall judge of the qualification of the candidates for admis- 
sion to the Society, and shall, at each meeting of the Society, report 
favorably all those they find qualified as such under the cons'^'tution. 
They shall have charge of all special meetings of the Socie^ t, and 
shall, through the Secretary, call special meetings at any time, upon 
the written request of five members of the Society, and at such other 
times as they see fit. They shall recommend plans for promoting 
the objects of the Society, shall digest and prepare business, and 



shall autliorke the disbursement and expenditure of unappropriated 
money in the treasury for the payment of current expenses of the 
Society. They shall generally superintend the interests of the 
Society, and execute all such duties as may be committed to them by 
the Society. They shall appoint a Registrar, who shall keep a roll of 
members, and in whose hands shall be lodged all the proofs of mem- 
bership qualification, and all the historical and geographical papers, 
manuscript or other, of which the Society may become possessed; 
and who, under the direction of such Board of Managers, shall, for 
adequate compensation, keep copy of such similar documents as the 
owners thereof may not be willing to leave permanently in the keep- 
ing of the Society. Such Registrar, if practicable, shall be an officer 
of the New-York Historical Society. 

At each gnmial meeting of the Society they shall make a general 
report. 

At all meetings of the Board of Managers, a majority shall consti- 
tute a quorum for the transaction of business. 

SECTIOX XI. 

Ayes and nayes shall be called at any meeting of the Society upon 
the demand of five members. 

SECTION XII. 

No alteration on the by-laws of the Society shall be made imless 
such alteration shall have been openly proposed at a previous meet- 
ing and entered in the minutes with the name of the member pro- 
posing the same, and shall be adopted by a majority of the members 
present at a stated meeting of the Society. 





THE NAME OF WASHINGTON. 



Read before the Society on February 22, 1887. 

Sons of the youth and the truth of the nation, — 

Ye that are met to remember the man 
Whose valor gave birth to a people's salvation, — 
Honor him now ; set his name in the van. 
A nobleness to try for, 
A name to live and die for — 
The name oi Washington ! 

Calmly his face shall look down through the ages — 

Sv.'eet yet severe with a spirit of warning; 
Charged with the vasdom of saints and of sages; 
Quick with the light of a life-giving morning. 
A majesty to try for, 
A name to live and die for — 
The name of Washington ! 

Though faction may rack us, or party divide us, 

And bitterness break the gold links of our story, 
Our father and leader is ever beside us. 
Live and forgive ! But forget not the glory 
Of him whose height we try for ; 
A name to live and die for — 
The name of Washington ! 

Still in his eyes shall be mirrored our fleeting 
Days, with the image of days long ended; 
Still shall those eyes give, immortally, greeting 
Unto the souls from his spirit descended. 
His grandeur we will try for ; 
His name we 'U live and die for — 
The name of Washington ! 

Geo. Parsons Lathrop. 
13 



THE CONTINENTAL SOLDIER. 



Address delivered by Col. Floyd Clarkson before the Society on 
February 22d, 1887. 



Mr. Presidejit: — In responding to the toast, "The Continental 
Soldier," it may give rise to the suggestion that we are praising 
ourselves, for by the Constitution of our Society only those can be- 
come members who have sprung from the loins of the Continental 
Soldier, embracing in the designation not merely those who enlisted 
in the regiments of the line of the different States, but also those who 
served under the broader banner of the minute-man and the militia; 
those through whose veins flows the blood, drops of which watered 
the seeds of human liberty sown in these colonies one hundred 
years before; the fruitage of which now gladdens the whole earth. 

And yet, Mr. President, so many generations are between most of 
us and those actors on one of earth's most conspicuous fields (for 
we are not so closely allied as is our dear, good friend Mr. Benjamin 
or Mr. Delevan) that we can properly recount the noble qualities 
they evidenced, and not be charged with egotistic display, — for the 
pen of the historian has with golden hues recorded their names and 
deeds upon the temple of fame, and the Muses have with seraphic 
harmonies sung their praise. 

The Continental Soldier, and especially those of the line, were 
long-suffering and patient. 

In a new country, with a government not organized to meet a 
powerful foe, with its authority not fully recognized, — to establish 

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which they battled ; without credit and without means, except such 
as loyal men placed upon the altar of their country, it was to be ex- 
pected almost as a matter of necessity that supplies would be scanty, 
pay would be long deferred, severe hardships were to be undergone ; 
but as you read the story of the march from Westchester through 
New Jersey, shoeless, blanketless, with insufficient clothing, the 
snow reddened with the patriots' blood, and when those Continental 
Soldiers went into cantonments at Valley Forge or at Morristown, 
and the history of the winter's life at those places is read, how nobly 
do those men rise before us in their long-suffering and endurance. 
The icy current of the Delaware, with the great cakes of ice, was 
not an impassable barrier to those hardy men ; the swamps of South 
Carolina became their house and their fortress, and the waters of 
the Pedee and Broad mirrored their triumphant ambuscades^as 
Marion's or Sumter's men fled across the fords of those streams and 
quickly turned to strike the Tory and the regulars of Tarleton. 

Besides, Mr. President, the valor of the men who fought out to a 
successful issue the establishment of this nation, attracts our admir- 
ing wonder and wins our vv'armest praise. 

From Bunker Hill the veterans of one of the proudest nations of 
Europe recoiled again and again before the militia gathered from the 
fields and shops of New England ; on the heights of Long Island, Ster- 
ling and Smallwood so bravely contested every foot of ground that 
caution took the place of bravado on the part of the invader. Trenton 
and Princeton gave evidence of the bravery and alertness of the Con- 
tinental Soldier, and his ability to measure arms with the choice 
troops of General Howe. At Monmouth Court House, though 
betrayed through the envy and ambition of a conspicuous com- 
mander, the heroism of the Continental Soldier turned the tide of 
battle and made the darkness of the night a welcome mantle to 
cover the flight of the veterans of Europe. At Bemis Heights, the 
militia and the line from Connecticut and Massachusetts, from New 
Hampshire and Vermont, and our own beloved State, together with 
the riflemen of Morgan, threw themselves with such impetuosity 
upon the grenadiers of Great Britain and on hired soldiers of Ger- 
many, that surrender became a necessity, and Burgoyne's army 
reached not Albany except as prisoners of war. 

And so on through the list of Brandywine, Germantown, Cow- 



i6 

pens, King's Mountain, and others, the soldiers of the Revolution 
maintained their attacks, and M'hen not victorious made the contest 
so sanguinary that the victory of their opponent lost most of its 
advantage. 

But, above and beyond all, — above their endurance and long-suf- 
fering, above their patience and their valor, — their love of country, 
their glorious patriotism, rises as their most sublime characteristic. 

Trained in a school whose lessons were of the rights of man, the 
individuality of each one, and his inalienable right to govern him- 
self, to pursue his honest calling in his own way, to enjoy life and 
the happiness which law and order and prosperity should give 
him, he loved the country which secured him those blessings, and 
he loved it beyond and better than life and all things else, 

Going into battle without the organization which long experience 
in the great contests of Europe had given their opponents, with the 
consciousness of v.'eakness which comes from lack of drill and unity 
of thought and movement, with inferior arms and with insufficient 
ammunition; yet those glorious men unhesitatingly committed them- 
selves and their dearest interests to the hazard of the conflict, assured 
that their devotion to country and to the cause which that country 
represented in the struggle, their unyielding patriotism, and the 
consequent bravery of each one, would bring victory out of these 
elements of disaster. 

This Society would fail of its proper usefulness, unless, as we 
recall these and other qualities and principles of our fathers, we 
shall deepen, in ourselves and in our posterity, devotion to these 
same elements of prosperity of our country, and assist in turning 
back the wave of lawlessness and anarchy which is reaching our 
shores from the looser and wilder classes of foreign agitators and 
dreamers. 

We shall fail in doing our duty to our country unless we shall 
show that, though removed by two or three or four generations 
from those heroic men, we still cherish their principles of civil and 
religious freedom, of law and order, and shall by our words and 
deeds and influence work for the growth and spread of the glorious 
principles of our Fathers, the Continental Soldiers. 



OUR COUNTRY: 

" Divine Providential Preparations for Making her the 
Home of Liberty." 



Address delivered by Rev. Brockholst Morgan before the 
Society on February 22d, 1 887. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentletnen : — I am avare that there are many, 
not among ourselves, however, who would object to the wording of 
the toast to which I have the honor to respond to-night. Provi- 
dence is an unknown quantity in the thinking of many. They 
would scorn to read the history of this country, or of any other land, 
in the light of such an interpretation. "Providence," said the 
French skeptic, "is on the side of great battalions." The history 
of nations is to such men like a rudderless ship, sent across the vast 
ocean to drift whither the winds and tide may direct. And any 
counting upon Divine Providence, as the toast suggests, in inter- 
fering in the government and direction of human affairs, is but the 
weakness of superstition or the invention of priests. 

But it is not in such a light that you and I would read the history 
of our country, or review the great deeds, to commemorate which 
we are assembled here to-night. Those gallant men of the Revo- 
lution, whose descendants we are, entered upon their perilous and 
almost hopeless struggle with the inspiration that their cause was 
none other than the cause of God. Indeed, I believe that, at the 
foundation of all human greatness, there must lie the belief that, 

17 



iS 

back of ns, there i? a power ■which will sustain the right, and bring 
tbings good ont of eril. It was that faitb which supported Colum- 
bus when he first steered for onr shores and his superstitious and 
drunken sailors would have cast him into the sea. Among the 
profound discouragements of our Civil War, defeat upon the field of 
battle, and treason in our great cities, the soul of Abraham Lincoln 
was upheld with the belief that God had not abandoned this nation, 
but that it would emerge from the struggle mightier than ever to 
accomplish the purpose of malice towards none and charity for all. 
And, along the line of history, which this Society is set to commem- 
orate, if we did not recognize a Divine Proridence shaping this as 
the future home of liberty to the oppressed of all nations, we should 
not be true, I think, to ourselves, to our traditions, or to the plain, 
nn-\-arnished facts of history. 

Religious liberty, gentlemen, is at the foundation of all national 
prosperity, and history demonstrates the ruling of a Divme Provi- 
dence in procuring this for us. You are well aware of the facts in 
the early settlement of this continent, of the course of Spanish dis- 
covery in the South, and of ihe Jesuit missionaries Marquette, Joliet, 
and Jacques Cartier along the St. Lawrence River. But for us was 
reserved a tide of immigration far different from these, a leaven 
which, like the measure of meal in the Scripture parable, leavened 
the whole Itunp of American life. The Anglo-Saxon of the seven- 
teenth century was not a lovable type of manhood in many respects : 
he was grim, he was bigoted, and he burned witches. Among those 
early emigrants was Sir Harry Vane, of whom Cromwell said in a 
petulant mood, •' Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane, the Lord deliver 
me from Sir Harry Vane."" But this same race of enoigrants had a 
sturdy love of liberty, for which they had shed their blood in their 
own land, and, not finding there, came amid great hardships to main- 
tain here. At that time, as if to help on the ends which Providence 
bad in view, the English Bible was given to the world in its most 
popular form, and the English character had reached its high-water 
mark for strength and integrity. They built your first churches, 
they established your first colleges, they were the first of your 
missionaries to the Heathen, and the peaceful sounds of the ax, 
wherewith they cleared away the dense forests, were exchanged, on 
Sunday, for those solemn meetings wherein they maintained and 



19 

established the principles of religious liberty, and deepened, fcr 
all time, the solid strength of this nation ! 

Nor are we to stop here, gentlemen, but reverently to acknowl- 
edge the Divine Providence, which at the same time shaped the 
growth and protected the tender life of civil liberty in our land. 
For one thing it is marvelous to think how the period of the col- 
onization of this land was Providentially timed. Had it been earlier, 
or later — all the result seemed to hang upon this : For one short 
period, the principles of civil liberty in England were laid down, 
and filled the minds of the people. There was, during that tin:e, 
a temporary reaction against arbitrary power, against taxation 
without representation, and against the interference of the Crown 
with the rights of the people, and it was at that period that there 
came over to our shores a body of men full of determination to 
maintain that ideal. These, during his brief career in power, Crom- 
well encouraged and protected against the encroachments of Parlia- 
ment. And when he died, and Charles II. ascended the throne, he 
made one brief attempt to subjugate our liberties, but was compelled 
to desist. This feeble germ of freedom, at the beginning of the 
Revolution, seemed at last fated. What could be more vain than for 
a nation like ours was then, with a population of only three millions, 
a large and tenantless country, and military resources of the poorest 
kind, to contend with a power which had successfully faced the 
world in arms, and whose empire encircled the globe, so that, to use 
Macaulay's words, wherever the sun rose, the martial airs of England 
sounded the reveille ? There is no more gallant scene in history 
than that of the few men, ancestors to all of us, and in whose mem- 
ory this society is formed, who swore to maintain the independ- 
ence of this land with their lives, their wealth, and their sacred 
honor. And here it is, gentlemen, that we come upon one of those 
convincing facts which proves that God holds the destinies of 
nations in His hands, and that none have been more favored than 
ourselves. Therewasatime, you know, — the traditions of your fam- 
ilies tell you, — that when all seemed helpless in that struggle with 
the mother countrj', when there was treason in our camps, starva- 
tion among our troops, and one bold advance of the enemy would 
have crushed our failing strength. At that period, by one of those 
strange phases of history which we call a Divine Providence, our 



ancient foe, France, monarchical, every tradition of which was at 
variance to civil liberty, came to the rescue of this bleeding people 
and offered herself as a rampart against our foes. Nor did it stop 
here, but, more marvelous still, the councils of our very enemies 
were confounded at that time, and the British Parliament denounced 
the unrighteous attempt of the IMinistry to subjugate this people, 
while Chatham with dying breath obtained for us a final peace and 
recognition of our liberties. It is of a piece with that same Divine 
Providence which in later days has brought us out of the gloom and 
horror of civil war, so that the rulers of Europe, who looked with 
dismay at the growth of democratic principles and would gladly 
have had a hand in our downfall, beheld us risen from the struggle, 
free from the one blot that lay upon our flag, stronger than ever in 
the principles of liberty and, to use the language of Scripture, " He 
crouched as a lion, and as a young lion ; who dare rouse him up ? " 

We have dealt so far with the past, gentlemen ; look for one mo- 
ment at the present. There is a Divine Providence in the land we 
occupy, a provision of Nature for the security and liberty of the 
millions who shall make it their home. The immense ocean -which 
rolls between us and our nearest neighbors defends us from the 
easy aggression of foreign foes. On the North we have a depend- 
ent colony from which there is nothing to fear, and on the South, 
distracted communities, like Mexico, in perpetual discord and strife, 
awaken in us no apprehension. No other nation enjoys, on anything 
so grand a scale, the advantages of union, and you have only to cast 
your eyes over a map of this country to see the wonderful provision 
which God has made here for a peaceful and a prosperous people. 
What threatened at one time to be our bane — emigration from other 
lands — has become a source of strength. In the great cities of the 
American continent every nation has her citizens ; here, in New York, 
there are more Germans than in Hamburg, and more Jews than 
in Jerusalem. And yet this enormous foreign element, far from 
endangering the liberty and stability of the country, has made itself 
into an element of its abiding prosperity. 

Truly, history contains no parallel to what we have been con- 
sidering, and whether we consider the part of this people, or specu- 
late upon the part this great Republic is to play in the future of 



21 



mankind, we have equally reason to applaud the sentiment to which 
I have been called upon this evening to respond. 

One word, gentlemen, before T close. As I look around me I see 
the " Sons of the Revolution," the descendants of men who, with 
sword and musket, or in the Legislatures of these States, turned the 
world upside dov^'n. They were no drones, those forefathers of ours. 
They were no carpet heroes. There are names among us to-night 
whom our country will always hold dear, for eloquence in debate, 
for wisdom in council, for energy in action, and for heroism in 
battle. A word of warning to us, their descendants — no danger is 
greater to the American of to-day than the neglect of his political 
duties, of the service he owes his country. No temptation so com- 
mon as to leave to others what we should do ourselves. If we are 
true " Sons of the Revolution," worthy descendants of those whose 
names we bear, it is not by such neglect that we shall do them honor, 
but by going forth among men, iu a spirit of patriotic love to our 
country, and of faith in its Divine Protector, we shall build a worthy 
superstructure upon the foundation they so nobly laid. 




mi) 




THE DEFENSES OF THE HUDSON IN THE WAR OF 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



Response by Judge-Advocate Asa Bird Gardiner, LL.D., Secre- 
tary General Society of the Cincinnati, to the Toast. 



Mr. Presiderzt and Gentlemen: One of the principal objects for 
which our Society has been instituted is to perpetuate the memory 
of those patriots who in military, naval, or civil service, by their 
acts or counsel, achieved American Independence, and to hispire 
among the members of the Society and their descendants the patriotic 
spirit of their forefathers. Another object is to keep before the 
public mind the memory of the services of the patriots of the Revolu- 
tion by the proper celebration of just such events as the formal 
evacuation of the State of New York by the British and the farewell 
of Washington to his oflicers, each of which we are met this evening 
to commemorate. 

How well the Society has fulfilled the expectations of its founders 
is discoverable in the great increase in its membership, in the eager- 
ness of applicants to establish their claims, and in the character of 
its supporters. 

An inspection of our roll shows the names of many whose ances- 
tors were prominent in the times that tried men's souls. 

Your own grandfather, Mr. President, who Avas Major of the 
2d Regiment Continental Light Dragoons, and a classmate, at Yale, 
of Nathan Hale, was the prototype for the character of Major Dun- 
wodie in J. Fenimore Cooper's romance of the " Spy," because it was 
he, the gallant gentleman and patriot, to whom the dragoon outpost 



23 

duty in the neutral ground of Westchester County was principally 
intrusted during the war of the American Revolution. He was the 
hero of the capture of the garrison of Lloyd's Neck in 1779 and the 
assault and capture on Long Island of Fort St. George in 1780, 
which last named event evoked the declaration of Congress upon his 
great gallantry and distinguished merit and the favorable notice of 
Washington in General Orders. 

Time will not permit reference to many other of the historic 
names upon our rolls, but I cannot forbear allusion to the namesake 
and grandson of John Cochrane, Surgeon-General of the Continental 
Army on Washington's Staff. This member is also great-grandson 
of Colonel James Livingston of the 1st Regiment Canadian Conti- 
nental Infantry, who, from his camp, in the defense of the Hudson 
at Verplanck's Point, in September, 1 780, observed the British sloop- 
of-war Vulture obtrusively high in Haverstraw Bay, and sending to 
West Point for powder for a field-piece, all unconscious of the 
events which hung upon that act, fired upon her from Teller's, now 
Croton Point, and compelled her to drop down the Hudson. 

This act prevented Major John Andre, Adjutant-General of the 
British Army, from returning to New York by water at the conclu- 
sion of his interview with the traitor Arnold, and thus, by his subse- 
quent capture, saved the defenses of the Hudson at West Point, then 
the most important post in America. 

I perceive with us, Mr. President, the grandson and representa- 
tive of that Marshal Ney of the Revolution, the hero of the gallant 
storming of Stony Point, who, while still suffering from the effects 
of a spent musket-ball which had struck him in the head in the 
assault, sat down inside the captured works at the late British com- 
mander's desk after receiving his sword, and on official paper, 
stamped with the arms of Great Britain, wrote a note to his beloved 
commander Washington, saying: 

" Stony Point, July 16, 1779, 2 o'clock a. m. 
" Dear General : The fort and garrison with Col. Johnston are ours. 
" Our officers and men behaved like men who are determined to be free. 

" Yours most sincerely, 

" Anthy. Wayne." 

Thirty-five years later, in 1814, the modest son of a patriot naval 
officer of the Revolution, immediately after his memorable victory 



24 

on Lake Erie, and after receiving the British flag-officer's sword^ 
sat down at the latter's desk, and while the shouts of victory were 
ringing in his ears wrote to Major-General William Henry Harrison, 
the grandfather of the President-elect, on identical paper, and said : 

" Dear General: We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two 
brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, 

"Oliver Hazard Perry." 

Such are the men whose virtues we commemorate in this Society — 
Americans in America. 

My toast, Mr. President, is too extensive a one for further per- 
sonal notices of individual members, but I cannot help expressing 
pleasure at the presence among us, as a member, of General Dwight 
Morris, of Connecticut, the eldest son of Captain James Morris, 2d 
Regiment Connecticut Continental Infantry, a graduate of Yale, who 
was made prisoner of war at the battle of Germantown, endured a 
long and arduous captivity, and was exchanged in time to be assigned 
to Col. Alexander Scammel's regiment of Light Infantry, in which 
he and my own propositus served at Yorktown at the surrender of 
Lord Cornwallis, and later in the defenses of the Hudson at West 
Point. 

The toast, sir, involves many pathetic stories and many incidents 
which give absorbing interest to the pages of history of those times. 

Years ago, v^'hen I served as an officer in the ist Regular Artil- 
lery, and undertook to see whetherany of the Continental Line of the 
Revolution had survived to the present day in existing organizations, 
I found that the only one left was the Company of Artillery raised 
by the State of New York in February, 1776, of which Alexander 
Hamilton became the first captain. This Company was stationed in 
the Jersey Battery, on New York Island, one of the defenses of the 
Hudson, in August, 1776; and here Private Wm. Douglas lost his 
right arm in the cannonade which ensued when several British 
men-of-war sailed by. 

The company afterwards served in the memorable retreat through 
the Jerseys, and in all the campaigns of the main Continental Army, 
including the Siege of Yorktown, and after March, 1777, became 
an integral part of the 2d Regiment Continental Corps of Artillery 
under Col. John Lamb. 



25 

The Peace of 1783 found it in garrison at West Point, and in tlie 
following year, by the disbandment of the remainder of the Con- 
tinentals, it was left alone to represent the Army of the United 
States. 

In the succeeding year, 17S5, it was recruited, and marched from 
the defenses of the Hudson to Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh, from whence 
it proceeded to Marietta, Ohio, carrying with it the Army Charter 
for a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons — which is now the 
Charter of the oldest lodge in the State of Ohio. 

Thence, as a pioneer of civilization, it went to the confluence of 
the Licking and Ohio Rivers, and built Fort Washington, near which 
the village of Losantiville sprang up, whose name was changed 
to Cincinnati by Governor St. Clair in honor of the Society of the 
Cincinnati. In St. Clair's defeat by the Miami Indians, the Com- 
pany lost half its rank and file, together with its captain. It served 
through many battles in the War of 1812, in the Mexican War, and 
in the War of the Rebellion, and, surviving two incorporations, it 
eventually became Light Battery F, 4th United States Artillery, and 
the reveille and retreat roll-calls and drum and bugle notes can still be 
heard as in 1776 in the defenses of the Hudson, at Fort Snelling, 
Minnesota, where that Light Battery is now stationed under the 
gallant Captain George B. Rodney. It is the living unit of organ- 
ization which Alexander Hamilton commanded, and in which served 
as a lieutenant to the Peace of 1783 the greatgrandfather of my 
friend Thompson, here present. 

I have not time for details, but bring to your historical recol- 
lection the first work on Governor's Island, erected by Col. Pres- 
cott of Bunker Hill fame and his regiment of Massachusetts Con- 
tinentals. 

The capitulation of Fort Washington, at the upper end of this 
island of New York, lost to the Continental service nearly 2700 
rank and file, most of whom died in the Sugar House in Liberty 
Street or in the Jersey prison-ship in Wallabout Bay. 

Forts Montgomery and Clinton, on opposite sides of Poploopens 
Kill, on the west bank of the Hudson facing Anthony's Nose, 
guarded for nearly two years the ascent of the Hudson, until Sir 
Henry Clinton, in his attempt to succor Burgoyne, took them both 
by assault in October, 1777, while Major-General Putnam remained 



26 

on the opposite side of the river with a force amply sufficient to 
prevent it if he had been possessed of military capacity. 

The defense of those places brought out in glowing colors the 
patriotism of the two brothers James and George Clinton — each 
Brigadier-General in the Continental Army and the latter the great 
war Governor of New York. 

General James received a bayonet wound in the thigh, but escaped 
in the darkness, as the assault was not made until late. 

General George also escaped and rallied the militia and remain- 
ing regulars back of West Point and New Windsor. 

Here a picket from Colonel Samuel B. Webb's regiment of Con- 
necticut Continental Infantry stopped a man journeying northward, 
who asked to whose troops they belonged, and they replied Gen- 
eral Clinton's. As luck would have it, the entire regiment was 
uniformed in red coats recently taken by a privateer out of an 
English store-ship, and the men had been so naked and desti- 
tute that there was no time to dye the uniforms, and they were 
issued as they were. This fact and the answer of the picket 
that they belonged to General Clinton's — viz., General George 
and not Sir Henry — troops, deceived the apparent countryman, 
and he made himself known, only to discover his fatal error. He 
was observed to swallow something, but a tartar emetic which Dr. 
Moses Higby administered at General George Clinton's head- 
quarters at Mrs. Fall's brought up a silver bullet, which upon 
being unscrewed contained a note to Burgoyne announcing the 
capture of the forts. The note is at General Washington's Head- 
quarters at Newburgh. 

The spy Daniel Taylor was duly tried by general court-mar- 
tial and executed, and Governor Clinton often used to say that he 
was convicted out of his own mouth. 

The record of garrison duty in the defenses of the Hudson at 
Forts Clinton and Montgomery, and subsequently at West Point 
and Constitution Island opposite, are records of the severest priva- 
tions endured with the most patriotic fortitude — privations which 
continued until our noble, generous ally, France, in 1781 saved the 
American Army from disruption and the cause from ruin by enor- 
mous and never-ceasing supplies of all kinds just when the wofully 
inefficient Articles of Confederation went into effect. 



27 

Major-General Baron Steuben, in one of his letters, has portrayed 
the sufferings at Valley Forge, where he saw a gentleman of former 
easy circumstances mounting guard in an old dressing-gown. 

Once, with his consent, his aides invited their brother officers to 
dine with him, each to bring his own rations. The aides made it a 
condition precedent that no guest should come who had a whole 
pair of breeches. As all were in this condition in that camp, none 
were excluded. They clubbed their rations of tough beefsteaks and 
potatoes, with hickory nuts for dessert, and as they had no wine, and 
only spirits, they made salamanders and setting them on fire drank 
them off flame and all. 

The Baron loved to speak of that dinner and the merry, ragged 
young fellows who honored him with their company. He termed 
them his Sans culottes, and thus first was applied to noble, patriotic 
gentlemen a term which subsequently acquired such terrible signifi- 
cance in France. 

The condition of the ist Regiment Rhode Island Continental 
Infantry in the following August, 1777, when in garrison at Fort 
Montgomery, is described by Brigadier-General James M. Varnum 
(whose namesake and representative is one of our own members) 
in an ofhcial report as follows. Said he: "The naked situation of 
the troops when observed parading for duty is sufficient to extort 
the tears of compassion from every human being. There are not 
two in five who have a shoe, stocking, or so much as breeches to 
render them decent." Yet this is the regiment which the Baron 
Cromot Du Bourg, aide-de-camp to Count de Rochambeau, recorded 
in his diary five years later as one of the most beautiful and per- 
fect regiments he had ever seen. 

The 2d Rhode Island, under Colonel Israel Angell, whose great- 
grandson and representative I see present, was in garrison at Peek- 
skill, in the defenses of the Hudson, at that time, August, 1777, 
and no better off. General Varnum reported half unfit for duty and 
the regiment an object of derision whenever it paraded. 

Yet these two heroic regiments a few days later marched for the 
Delaware, where they were put in garrison at Fort Mercer by Gen- 
eral Washington, and on the 22d of October, in less than sixty days 
from the date of the inspection to which I have referred, defended 
it manfully against the whole British fleet and repulsed the land 



■ ■IIIIW|}IM I IW^MJ 



28 

assault of Count Donop and 1,200 Hessians, killing and wounding 
of the enemy over half as many as their own numbers, including the 
Hessian commander himself. 

Well may we commemorate the heroism and fortitude of such 
men. All history may be searched for greater examples of patient 
endurance through long years of bloody war, and in a cause which 
appealed to the judgment of mankind and which, in the Providence 
of God, has raised up a right nation among the peoples of the earth. 

General Washington's army was often for a week without meat, 
and then as long at a time without bread, and rarely ever supplied 
with salt. Sugar, coffee, tea, vegetables, were rarely issued. Lux- 
uries were unknown. The officers were ruined in their fortunes 
and, with their men, discharged without pay ; yet they never faltered, 
and it is fight we should commemorate their virtues. 

In the darkest days of all, in 1780, when suffering was the great- 
est, occurred the memorable treason of the commanding general of 
the defeases of the Hudson, and the execution, as a spy, of Major 
John Andre, Adjutant-General of the British Army. 

The ancestors of some of us were present at that melancholy 
event, which policy made necessary. 

The Americans sincerely regretted the necessity, and those who 
attended the execution were visibly affected. Only last month I 
noticed the decease in Tarrytown of an aged gentleman whose 
father had been a Continental soldier in the Massachusetts Line 
and detailed for guard duty at the gallows at Tappan. Upon his 
honorable discharge from service he settled in Tarrytown, but 
through a long life could never refer to Major Andre's fate witliout 
tears. 

Your grandfather, Mr. President, remained almost constantly with 
the British Adjutant-General from the time he was brought to 
dragoon headquarters at the outposts in Westchester County until 
his decease. 

The event, as one of historical importance, is known to you all; 
but possibly a few anecdotes connected with it may not prove 
uninteresting. 

General Washington had bden to Connecticut to meet Count de 
Rochambeau to concert combined operations, and on his return 
to the army, then in New Jersey, stopped overnight at Fishkill, 



29 

and the next morning with his staff proceeded on horseback to 
General Arnold's headquarters at the Beverly Robinson House, 
on the same side of the Hudson. 

As he passed Constitution Island he concluded to inspect West 
Point opposite, but told his aides to ride on and breakfast with Mrs. 
Arnold and tell her not to wait for him. 

This was the very day the British were expected to ascend the 
river and the treason to be consummated. 

Washington had, however, returned from the eastward two days 
sooner than expected, and we can fancy the feelings of the traitor as 
he sat at the head of his breakfast table. 

But when there came a knock at the door and Lieutenant Allen 
of the 2d Light Dragoons entered, wet and muddy from his night's 
ride, bringing Lieutenant-Colonel Jameson's note announcing the 
capture of the spy, and that the papers had been sent to Washington, 
Arnold saw he had not a moment to lose. 

As remarked by Washington Irving, it was a terrible crisis, " yet 
in this awful moment he gave evidence of that quickness of mind 
which had won laurels for him in the path of duty." 

With amazing self-control he excused himself, and first going 
upstairs to announce his flight to his wife, he passed through the 
kitchen, where Corporal Larvey of the i6[h Massachusetts Con- 
tinentals, coxswain of his barge, awaited his orders. 

Directing him to follow instantly, Arnold detached a horse from 
the fence back of the house, and mounting, rode at a gallop down 
to the shore, the corporal running by his side. 

Jumping into his barge he directed the crew — all Massachusetts 
soldiers — to row down stream, and as he passed Forts Montgomery 
and Clinton and Verplanck's Point, and approached the Vulture, he 
displayed a handkerchief as a flag of truce. 

We can fancy the feelings and astonishment of the crew when 
they discovered that their honored commander of the defenses of 
the Hudson was a traitor. 

At the 4th-of-JuIy dinner in 1822 of the Massachusetts Society of the 
Cincinnati, in Boston, Surgeon James Thatcher, of the regiment to 
which Corporal Larvey had belonged, gave the toast," We wear but 
one coat at a time," and then said that when Arnold came out of the 
cabin of the Vttlture and approached his crew and informed them 



--'kUL m»\ia^mmmmmmmi0mmmmmmm 



30 

that he had joined His Britannic Majesty's forces, and would make 
corporals of them all and do something more for Larvey, the latter 
indignantly replied, "No, sir; one coat is good enough for me at 
a time," and added, that he 'd " be damned if he fought on both 
sides." 

Relative to the Capture of Major Andre, near Tarrytown. 

In the De Lancey family there is a story that the seven young 
farmers who picketed the two roads to Tarrytown, upon one of 
which Andre was captured, had gone there to meet a party of 
cowboys who had come out of New York prepared to pay a 
large reward for a valuable blooded stallion (afterwards known as 
the Morgan horse), which belonged to Colonel James De Lancey 
of the Tory Dragoons and had been stolen from him while he was 
visiting his mother at Mamaroneck from his post at Morrisania. 

Historians say that these young farmers were out to intercept 
cowboys, who it is alleged had been committing depredations, and 
were returning to New York with their plunder. 

It is not probable that a detachment of cowboys would have gone 
further up into the neutral ground, as it would have brought them 
too close to the American Light Dragoon outposts. 

Then, on the other hand, as these seven farmers divided, three 
going on one road and four on another, they would have been too 
few in numbers for any attack on such a detachment. 

On what trivial circumstances sometimes depend great events. 

John Paulding, one of Andre's captors, had been for a time in the 
militia and taken prisoner and confined in the Sugar House, from 
which he had escaped only four days before the Tarrytown affair. 
While there, a Hessian sentinel, taking pity on the almost naked 
condition of the young fellow, gave him an old green cast-off Jager- 
uniform coat. 

Probably Paulding had no other when he met Major Andre, but 
it deceived the latter and made him declare he was a British officer. 
The Hessian soldier probably never knew the consequences of 
his charitable act. 

In 1 781 the main Continental and French Auxihary Armies 
united in Westchester County for the defense of the Hudson and 
for operations against New York. 



31 

Time will not permit me to tell you many interesting stories con- 
nected with this combined operation, or the march to Yorktown, 
or return in 1782 to the Hudson, from whence the French Auxiliary 
Army proceeded to Providence, a*nd thence to Boston to embark. 

Soon afterwards the preliminaries of peace were signed, and in 
June, 1783, the Continental soldiers in the defenses of the Hudson 
and in camp near New Windsor, who had enlisted for the war, were 
given the opportunity to go home on furlough. 

It was then that the old Continentals, in their ragged regimentals, 
paraded, many for the last time. 

All the New York, Jersey, and Maryland line marched for home. 
Pennsylvania and Delaware were with Nathaniel Greene in 
South Carolina, and the Long Island regiment was in Northern 
New York in the defenses of the Hudson at Schuylerville. The 
men enlisted for the war in the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
and Connecticut regime its marched to the wharf at New Wind- 
sor and were ferried across and proceeded to their homes. 

Lieutenant-Colonel David Humphreys, aide-de-camp to Wash- 
ington at Army headquarters, Newburgh, then wrote these lines: 

Ye brave Columbian bands, a long farewell ! 
Well have ye fought for freedom, nobly done 
Your martial task, the meed immortal won, 

And time's last records shall your triumphs tell. 

The remainder, consolidated into three Massachusetts regiments, 
one Connecticut regiment, and a New Hampshire battalion, took 
their way over the heights of Cornwall to West Point, and the last 
cantonment of the Continental Army was broken up. 

In November they came down to New York for the evacuation, 
and then returned to the Point, and on January ist all but one 
Massachusetts regiment and the Alexander Hamilton company of 
artillery were discharged. 

On the 20th of June, 1784, the last of the Continental infantry 
turned in their muskets at West Point and marched by companies 
to the dock and were ferried over, and none remained in the 
defenses of the Hudson but the Alexander Hamilton company of 
artillery, under Captain and Brevet-Major John Doughty. 



32 

There was present at this disbandment the celebrated Molly 
Pitcher, whose husband had been a cannoneer in the Continental 
artillery and killed at Monmouth. Her services there have been 
portrayed in the bronze bas-relie^on the monument at Monmouth, 
and in Thomas Dunn English's poem of the battle : 

As we turned on flanks and center, in the path of death to enter, 
One of Knox's brass six-pounders lost its Irish cannoneer, 

And his wife, who, 'mid the slaughter, had been bearing pails of water 
For the gun and for the gunner, o'er his body shed no tear. 

"Move the piece ! " — but they found her loading, firing that sLx-pounder, 
And she gayly, till we won, worked the gun. 

Loud we cheered as Captain Molly v/aved the rammer; then a volley 
Pouring in upon the grenadiers, we sternly drove them back ; 

Though like tigers fierce they fought us, to such zeal had Molly brought us, 
That though struck with heat and thirsting, yet of drink we felt no lack ; 

There she stood amid the clamor, busily handling sponge and rammer, 
While we swept with wrath condign on their line. 

For her services on that occasion General Washington and Major- 
General Henry Knox, Chief of Artillery, determined that she should 
always be cared for. 

The truth of history makes it necessary to say that the rosy- 
cheeked, freckle-faced Irish girl of 1779 sadly deteriorated in the 
remaining four years of the war. 

When none was left of the artillery but the Alexander Hamilton 
company, General Knox, who had become Secretary of War at the 
Capitol in New York city, directed the military store-keeper at 
West Point to find a suitable boarding-place for Molly at Highland 
Falls, just below West Point, and pay her board and provide her 
with all necessaries. 

In the following year, 1785, Captain George Fleming, the store- 
keeper at West Point, made requisition three separate times on the 
Secretary of War for shifts for Mrs. Molly, but the Confederated 
Constitution, adopted in I78i,had reduced the National Govern- 
ment to such a condition of poverty that General Knox had no 
funds wherewith to buy shifts for Molly or even pay his clerks or 
the Army of the United States, consisting of one small company of 
artillery, whose pay was many months in arrears. 



33 

He was eventually relieved of his embarrassment by a letter from 
Captain Fleming, in which the latter said that in overhauling the 
stores at West Point he had found some old tents worn sufficiently 
thin by rain and exposure to enable him to have them made up into 
shifts for Molly. 

The contrast between the condition of our Government then and 
now is sufficiently striking, without comment. 

My response to your toast, Mr. President, is now ended, but I 
may be pardoned if in closing I use the words of a patriotic lady, 
written in 1 779 : 

God save our States ! 
Make us victorious, 
Happy and glorious, 
No tyrants over us. 

God save our States ! 



In 1783 Colonel David Humphreys: 

Ye brave Columbian bands, a long farewell ! 
Well have ye fought for freedom, nobly done 
Your martial task, the meed immortal won. 

And time's last records shall your triumphs tell. 



June, 1779: 



God save the thirteen States, 
Long rule the United States, 

God save our States. 
Make us victorious, 
Happy and glorious. 
No tyrants over us. 

God save our States ! 

Ye brave Columbian bands, a long farewell ! 
Well have ye fought for freedom, nobly done 
Your martial task, the meed immortal won. 

And time's last records shall your triumphs tell. 



'^^j jLm^.h.m' jwu.^. . L". '11! J.'Hil gl 




THE STORMING OF STONY POINT. 



By Frederick G. Gedney. 



A troop of dragoons hovered about the roadway in front of a 
house by the banks of the Hudson, whose broad piazza surveys the 
Tappan Zee, and whose calm surface of an evening late in July, 1779, 
reflects the sentinel stars above and the cabin-lights of a British 
sloop-of-war riding at anchor. 

The more than usual interest shov/n by the officers who pass in 
and out of the house, and whose richer equipments proclaim them 
of high rank, gives proof to the rumor that events of moment are 
taking place in the Van Orden house. A number of generals had 
gathered in the dining-room of the inhospitable mansion of the 
farmer, whose mysterious flight to New York gave color to the 
rumor that his sympathies were with "the party from below." His 
servants bustled about the table, very hospitably however, staring 
with wonder at the officers who had honored the dwelling by their 
presence. 

Some great movement indeed ! But where and when ? The eager 
and curious high-privates speculated out there in the dark, in the 
roadway. " I reckon," said a tall cavalryman, who came up 
from the South with Murfee's troops, " that we are going to cross 
into the Highlands and really fight Sir Henry ; anything but 
this boy's-play. I want to fight and get through — go home; 
no glory, no nothing — not even a pipeful of tobacco." And he 
knocked the dried corn-silk ashes from his pipe on a fence rail. 

34 



35 

" Perhaps," said a lank Yankee, who had been sitting on a log 
humming a hymn — " perhaps we 're going to get our pay." "Non- 
sense," said a chorus of laughing voices. " Congress can't pay any- 
body or anything." 

" Keep quiet," said the Sergeant. "Do you want a volley from 
that sloop? I wonder what keeps them so long in the house." 

Sir Henry Clinton had captured Stony Point and Verplanck's 
Point on the 2ist day of May, 1779, had heavily garrisoned the 
former post, and strengthened it with cannon. All communication 
between New England and the other colonies was at West Point 
or above, and to recapture the Kings Ferry was the object of the 
gathering in the farm-house. 

"There is one general who will take Stony Point, if he attempts 
it, or die in the effort," said Washington, looking up from the table 
to the officers who surrounded it. "Anthony Wayne," said a dozen 
voices at once. Washington nodded his head in acquiescence. "Tell 
Wayne to meet me at Sandy Beach at 4 to-morrow," said Washing- 
ton to Lafayette as the council broke up. 

Th^ujiet. Wayne was ready. "I will storm HELL, General, 
if y^^WlP oiily Pla" it-" "Had we better not try Stony Point 
first? ""replied Washington. This was the plan agreed upon: to 
make a night march, the men with their muskets unloaded to cross 
the marsh at the foot of Stony Point at low tide, a party of pioneers 
were to go ahead to clear away the abatis, the soldiers to wear 
white cockades, to carry the fort by assault at the point of the bayo- 
net, and cry, " The fort is ours." 

At 12 o'clock noon on the 15th day of July, 1779, the march 
to Stony Point began. Wayne commanded the right. Colonel 
Butler the left. Lieutenant-Colonel Fleury, Colonels Febinger and 
Meigs, were with their regiments. There was a battalion of Massa- 
chusetts troops under Major Hull, and Major Murfee had two 
companies of North Carolinians. They reached the Springsteel 
house, a mile and a half from Stony Point, and halted for supper. 

Noiselessly they fall upon the ground, and in silence they eat 
their bread and cold meat ; no coffee, for there is but little in the 
command, and the smoke of a camp-fire might betray them to the 
enemy. They rest and converse in undertones until half-past 
eleven. 



36 

Wayne moves noiselessly along and communicates this order : 

" The first man in the fort will receive five hundred dollars and 
immediate promotion; the next man, four hundred ; the third, three 
hundred ; the fourth, two hundred ; and the fifth, one hundred dol- 
lars. If there are any cowards here, drop out now; there is no 
place for them on that hill." Then each soldier pinned a white 
piece of paper to his hat to distinguish friend from foe in the dark- 
ness. The general leans against a tree ; thoughts of loved ones in 
faraway Pennsylvania cross his mind, then he writes a hurried let- 
ter to a friend in Philadelphia to take care of his children should he 
fall in the attack. Now he places himself at the head of the column. 
Just as the marsh is reached, the form of a picket stands in bold 
relief against the sky, and two men glide silently forward; a strug- 
gle, and then a bound and gagged prisoner goes to the rear. Splash ! 
in goes the front rank in the water. Bang! goes the sentry's gun 
from the first line of redoubt ; then a rattle of drums in the guard- 
house overhead, and up from bunk, bed, and couch spring the garri- 
son, — and now the fight for Stony Point begins. The marsh is 
crossed, the cannon balls whiz through the darkness, th^|MDneers 
cut an opening through the timbers, and through that roim^Bleway 
pours the patriot tide. 

Another redoubt, and here a leaden hail of musketry from the 
garrison ; down goes the gallant leader, with a crimson stain on 
his heroic face. " Forward ! " he exclaims. " Don't stop ! On ! on ! 
carry me into the fort, boys; I will die at the head of my column." 

Over rock and fallen trees, led by Fleury and Febinger, rush the 
Americans. On! on! over breastworks, bearing with them the 
fallen but victorious chieftain ; cannon and musketry blaze in their 
faces — volley after volley from hardly a musket's length away. 
Nothing to face the fearful storm but cold steel and lofty courage ! 

Now Fleury leaps into the fort just as Butler's left comes pour- 
iflg in. 



Long before the morning star rose o'er the Hudson, snuffing out 
the light in the cabin of the British sloop, there was an oarsman 
bending his back, shooting his boat across the Hudson "with 
muffled oar, without a light, as still as Death." His boat fairly 



37 

jumped beneath the sturdy strokes. No steed to meet him on the 
opposite shore. As he reached this side the river, he scrambled up 
the narrow path into the road, and towards headquarters he ran 
like a deer. Sewed fast in the lining of his coat was this letter : 

Stony Point, July 15th, 1779. 2 a. m. 
General Washington : The Fort and Garrison and Colonel Johnson are Ours. 
Our officers and men behaved like men determined to be free. 

Yours most sincerely, 

Anthony Wayne. 

Wayne, Fleury, Butler, Febinger, and Meigs — honors came thick 
and fast upon them ; they were the heroes of the hour. Resolu- 
tions in Congress and in State Legislatures were passed ; medals and 
inscriptions and swords were given them ; but their memory will 
live forever in the hearts of the grateful people ; their heroic bravery 
at Stony Point a monument that shall abide with the patriotic sons 
of America until time shall be no more. 

Emblem and legend shall fade from the portal. 

Keystone and column may crumble and fall ; 
They were the builders whose work was immortal. 

Crowned by the Dome that is over us all. 




EVACUATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 



Response to above Toast by General Joseph C. Jackson. 



Evacuation Day, as it exists in the popular mind, illustrates the 
familiar law of cherishing only the more agreeable and brilliant 
incidents and features of life, whereas the less agreeable and less 
conspicuous are partially or entirely forgotten. Is not this law 
universal as to the ordinary experiences of childhood? And what 
soldier is there who does not retain a more vivid recollection of the 
relieving pastimes of camp life and those engagements which were 
pregnant with victory ? 

Popularly considered, Evacuation Day, as is true to a certain 
extent of the Fourth of July, is treated with less consideration than 
is due, though the reasons therefor are different. The peculiar and 
somewhat excessive demonstrations of the one are in striking 
contrast with the omission of all formal observance of the other. 
Viewed properly, however. Evacuation Day — the officially appointed 
day for the departure from American shores of the hostile forces 
of a monarchical government — marks a significant crisis in the his- 
tory of this nation. Were it designated as " Deliverance Day," or 
" Triumph Day," or the " Birthday of the Nation," our associations 
and emotions awakened by it would be of the most exalted char- 
acter. To realize its significance we should first glance at the con- 
dition oi affahs J>recedtng it, then consider some of its incidents and 
consequences. 

For the first time in the world's history had there been such a 

38 



39 

peculiar conflict between a colony — the offspring of the mother- 
country — with the mother-country itself. The North American 
colonies, those which afterwards comprised the thirteen original 
States, after various vicissitudes became substantially English — a 
jVifw Britain, or Nezv England, with other associated elements; a 
young colony, bound to the mother-country by the prevailing ties 
of blood, of language, of civilization, and, to some extent, especially 
in the cities, by the doctrine of "Church and State," which largely 
affected local affairs. 

Unpleasant feelings, however, were created and fostered between 
the mother-country and these colonies, which took the form of petty 
hostile acts on the part of the former, by which the colonies were, 
here and there, deprived of valued personal and property rights. 
But the radical cause of complaint was taxation zvithout representa- 
tion in the parent Government. It is not improbable that all lesser 
annoyances would have been endured, even patiently, had the peo- 
ple been allowed proper representation in the Parliament of Great 
Britain. Anything short of that seemed to the intelligent and 
spirited colonists as robbery of their personal and civic independ- 
ence; to this they would not submit. 

The Mayfloiuer Puritans distinctly agreed, even while on ship- 
board, that each man should have equal power in the government 
of the colony. Taxatiomoitlwiit representation caused the Revolu- 
tionary War. Is it not then amazing that, in this year of grace 
l888, our people peacefully tolerate a party administration which 
owes its very existence to a partial and unjust representation of the 
lawful citizens? 

Dating the Revolutionary struggle from the battle of Lexington, 
it was an eight years' war. The battles of Bunker Hill, of Charles- 
town Harbor, and Washington's tactics on Dorchester Heights had 
convinced the British foe that Boston was a difficult, and at the 
same time a less important, point to hold; and the spirit of the New 
Englanders being so thoroughly independent, and Boston itself 
being of less value and service to the parental Government than the 
larger and wealthier port of New York, General Howe determined to 
evacuate Boston and sail for Halifax; and shortly afterwards he 
proceeded to Long Island, resolved to make // the base of an attack 
on, and the occupation of, the Island of Manhattan. 



4° 

In September, 1 776, the army which General Washington had 
concentrated on this island was obliged to retreat before the supe- 
rior forces of Lord Howe, which disembarked at Kip's Bay, and 
swept down upon our little city — then numbering only about twenty 
thousand inhabitants. 

How rapid — as is usual in war, particularly in civil war — were 
the changes of sentiment within this little city! At one time the 
Sons of Liberty were tearing down the statues of monarchs, roughly 
handling Loyalists, — whether public officers of Church or State, or 
private citizens, — invading temples of religion, particularly where 
Anglo-American services were held, driving into exile the more 
conspicuous Royalists, and making it supremely uncomfortable, in 
every way, for those Tories who remained. But when Howe, at the 
head of the British troops, took possession, what a change! Loyal- 
ists, whether clergy or laity, returned from their hiding-places to 
the city; and resident Tories of both sexes, and of all ages, soon 
displayed their colors. Even the statue of the eloquent Earl of 
Chatham was defaced. The sharp conflict of passions was vividly 
shown in Governor Tryon's plot, on the one hand, for the assassina- 
tion of General Washington, and, on the other hand, by the suc- 
cessful stroke of the Sons of Liberty, just before their departure, in 
burning one thousand of the four thousand houses comprising the 
town. It can safely be left to the imagination to depict the heart- 
burnings, strifes, contentions, — commercial, financial, political, mili- 
tary, factious, and personal, — experienced and witnessed during the 
seven years' occupation of New York by the British, intensified as 
they were by the alternating hopes and fears of Royalists and rebels 
inspired by the startling vicissitudes of war. 

During the long, dark days of the Revolution, the horrors of the 
local prison-ships, the intense sufferings of the troops at Valley Forge 
and Morristown, the hesitating counsels of the Continental Congress, 
and discontent and partial mutiny among the troops, brought 
depression alike to patriot citizen and soldier; while the success of 
our arms, whether at Trenton, at Stony Point, at Cowpens, at Sara- 
toga, or at Yorktown, accompanied by the reports of conflicting 
opinions boldly expressed in the British House of Commons as to 
the justice of the Colonial War, were fresh causes for hope and 
determination. 



41 

But Evacuation Day was drawing near. Early in the Spring of 
1783 it was foreshadowed, by a letter from Lafayette, that articles of 
peace were to be signed. In March, confirmatory news arrived; 
and on April 8th peace between the contending parties was officially 
declared. Immediately thousands of Loyalists prepared to flee from 
this city, dreading the indignation and vengeance of their country- 
men whom they had so long wronged. No less than five thousand 
Tories sailed from this port on April 25th. It was alike the duty and 
interest of Great Britain to plant such fugitives as colonists, some- 
where, that they might still cherish allegiance to the British crown. 
While many of the wealthiest returned to England, others found 
a home in Abaco, one of the Bahamas ; but a much larger number 
settled in Nova Scotia and the maritime provinces. 

The departure, however, of the British troops, and their allies, the 
Tories, was necessarily slow ; and despite the honest energy of Gen- 
eral Guy Carleton, some four months were consumed in adjusting 
the affairs of Loyalists, patriots, and slaves — touching persons and 
property — even after the final order to evacuate had been promul- 
gated. The Tories destroyed much of what they could not take 
away, burned and demolished houses and furniture, and, in many 
instances, officers of the crown demanded money in the form of 
rents before restoring private property to its long-absent owners. 
In short, everything possible was done by the Tories to make things 
uncomfortable for the patriots; but, to the credit of their commander, 
General Carleton, the British troops conducted themselves with com- 
parative moderation. It was actually necessary to keep the city 
under military control until it was delivered up ; and an understand- 
ing was had between the respective commanders-in-chief of the 
British and American forces, that the moment the former abandoned 
their positions in the city the American Army, under its commander, 
should take possession. Indiscriminate plunder and crime were 
thus suppressed. Indeed, the lines of march were so distinctly 
defined and rigidly maintained that, as points were uncovered by 
the retiring British troops, the Americans advanced and occupied 
them ; and this was so all the way from Harlem to the Battery. 

What a suggestive spectacle — the proud troops of the "grandest 
old monarchy in the world now quietly withdrawing from this conti- 
nent, silently embarking in their boats and hastening down our 



bay, defeated, disappointed, making the way clear for the brilliant 
manoeuvres of another, a victorious army — that of a nascent nation 
— already flushed vi^ith such high hopes and expectations as genuine 
republicanism is universally calculated to inspire. 

No wonder that some disheartened and mortified Briton showed 
his desperation and disgust by nailing to the top of the flagstaff at 
Fort George the British colors ; and so greased the pole itself, that 
it was a difficult task for the Yankees to reach the top and tear the 
detested ensign down ! No wonder that there stood forth among 
the Sons of Liberty young men, eager and skillful enough to climb 
to the top of the flagstaff and tear therefrom the Cross of St. George, 
and cause the Stars and Stripes to be raised aloft challenging world- 
wide recognition as it waved its increasing glories in full view of a 
mighty yet vanquished foe ! Sergeant Van Arsdale and Lieutenant 
Anthony Glean, who together spoiled the petty, British scheme of 
keeping the English colors flying, were but two men out of the 
thousands of patriots who thronged the spot, ready for any act of 
daring or devotion. No wonder that the red-coats were reluctant 
to leave this favored spot, and did not haul down their flag on 
Governor's Island until December 3d, nor that not until full ten 
days after the formal evacuation of the city did the defeated squad- 
rons of Imperial England weigh anchor and quit forever the shores 
of this free land, never before so beautiful in their eyes ! 

Our compatriots of that day appreciated the vast significance of 
this event. At a dinner given by Governor Clinton, when the great 
transaction was over, every one of the thirteen toasts drank demon- 
strated what thoughts were uppermost in the patriots' breasts. 
Never before had the toast to " The United States of America " 
been the first on the long hst; certainly never before had it pre- 
ceded that which, conventionally, was always dominant, namely : 
" His most Christian Majesty the King of England." 

This city owes it to itself — to its history and its future — to 
cherish everything pertaining to Evacuation Day. True, the Island 
of New York had been the scene of no decisive battle of the many 
conflicts of arms, but it was the pivot of all martial movements — 
the center of the life of the colonial cause during the entire Revolu- 
tionary struggle. It shared the worst of the fight, either bravely 
doing or as patiently enduring, till the day when the American 



43 

Commander-in-Chief retook possession of the city — never again to 
be surrendered to a foreign power. Here the British army admitted 
its defeat and practically surrendered; /i^r^ the patriotic army was 
finally crowned with the laurels of victory ; here George Washing- 
ton bade farewell to his noblest brethren-in-the-field ; here, too, 
as was most meet and proper, he was inaugurated, nearly a 
century ago, the first President of this fortunate Republic, which, 
under God, shall be as enduring as the sun, as genuine as justice, 
as immortal as truth, and prove itself the unrivaled model for the 
wisest civil government of mankind. 




FORT STANWIX AND BATTLE OF. ORISKANY. 



An Address by J. C. Pumpelly. 



Mr, President ajid Members of the Society of the So7isoftJie Revoht- 
tion: — Just so surely as there is a power in this world that makes 
towards righteousness, so there is a power that makes towards patriot- 
ism, and we find m this Society, young as it is, such an influence 
going out among our people — a historical spirit whose inspiration is 
fed by such events as we commemorate to-night, and whose impulses 
are wise, conservative, and uplifting. 

There have always been districts of the earth where nations and 
armies have had their decisive battles. Belgium, from Julius 
Caesar until now, has been the battlefield of Europe. There in 
1815 the fate of that country -was determined — whether it was 
to be French or National. So we may say that the State of New- 
York, the valleys of the Mohawk and the Hudson, constituted 
the fighting ground of the American Revolution. In Colonial days 
Charles II. was assured of no foothold on this continent until he 
liad become master of that region ; and when we recall that the 
ancestors of those who fought at Oriskany passed in 1683 the 
*' Charter of Liberties," we know of what heroic stuff his colonists 
were made, and how fearlessly they defended their rights. 

English statesmen saw also that more than all the South, Phila- 
delphia, and the Island of New York, that this region was the very 
eye of the campaign of 1777. So it came about that a well-devised 
plan was formed in England for the grasping of this key to the 
continent. 

44 



45 

Clinton, the Commander-in-Chief, was to start from New York 
and follow up the Hudson; General Burgoyne with his 7,000 men 
was to approach from the north by the way of Lake Champlain ; 
while Col. Barry St. Leger with his 1700 Tories and Indians was 
to come from Oswego on down the Mohawk Valley, joining the 
leaders of the otlier two expeditions at Albany when their work was 
completed. All these expeditions were well appointed, the officers 
able, and the armies thoroughly equipped. Sir William Johnson 
had sagaciously provided for the sustaining of the British power in 
the Mohawk country, and his mantle had failed upon his equally 
able but more unscrupulous son. 

By these men, aided by Brant, che famous chief, the whole Indian 
Confederacy, except the Oneidas, had been allied to the British 
cause, and this alone was a serious menace to the patriot cause. 
Yet, in the Providence of God, who is not necessarily on the side of 
the heaviest battalions, none of these expeditions, as history tells 
us, ever reached its destination. 

In this year of 1777, so full of gloom for our cause, if Burgoyne 
v/as successful New England was in danger of being cut oiTfrom all 
communication with the other colonies ; and as in that day when 
Lexington fired the " gun that was heard round the world," every 
county was awake to the importance of a most vigorous resistance. 

Fortunately there was no division in the East, and the army of 
General Schuyler was promptly recruited from Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. 

It was this able commander who " made the lock and fitted the 
key " which the self-lauded Gates had but to turn and the defeat of 
Cornwallis was assured. It was Schuyler also whose characteristic 
forethought secured important defenses in the Mohawk Valley — one 
of which was located at a point between Wood Creek and the 
Mohawk, and was named Fort Stanwix. Right in the pathway of 
St. Leger was this fort, and he must perforce take it or fail in his 
expedition. 

That he did so fail, with all the advantages he possessed, is to me 
another striking proof that the cause of the colonists was under the 
protection of that all-wise Ruler whose arm is ever bared for the 
defense of His people. 

St. Leger had a force of 1,700 troops, — the flower of Burgoyne's 



46 

army. Tryon County was full of Tories, every family almost hav- 
ing in it the partisans of the king; and Sir John Johnson and the 
murderous thug Zebulon Butler had formed them into military 
organizations. The Mohawk Indians, the most sanguinary of all 
the Iroquois, led by Brant, cooperated with the British. As if to 
abet English cruelty by the incentive of cupidity, St. Leger offered 
;^20 (English pounds) for every American scalp. Not only soldiers 
were mutilated, but young boys and girls were waylaid and mur- 
dered in order to receive this infamous guerdon. 

The Oneidas were faithful to the American cause. They even 
offered to break the ancient league and add their forces to those of 
the colonists; but considerations of policy led to a waiving of this 
proposition, which, if accepted, would have prevented St. Leger 
from reaching Fort Stanwix prior to the capture of Burgoyne. As 
it was, the Oneidas kept the garrison at Fort Stanwix and the Com- 
mittee of Safety at German Flats carefully informed of the counsels 
of the Six Nations and the movements of the British troops. 

Now, at this date, August, 1777, Colonel Peter Gansevoort, a 
brave officer twenty-eight years of age, was in command at Fort 
Stanwix, and was soon after joined by Lieutenant-Colonel Marinus 
Willett, an experienced soldier, thoroughly versed in border war- 
fare; with his regiment the garrison now amounted to 550 men. 

The emergency required all the skill, energy, and courage of both 
officers. In a letter to General Schuyler, dated July 4th, Colonel 
Gansevoort writes: "Owing to the increasing number of hostile 
Indians, 150 men would be needed to obstruct Wood Creek, an 
equal number to guard the men at work felling and hauling timber. 
Beef is spoiled, bullets do not suit the firelocks, a ton of powder is 
needed. We will, notwithstanding every difficulty, exert ourselves 
to the utmost of our power, and if your Excellency will order a 
speedy reenforcement and needed supplies to enable us to hold out 
a siege, we will be able to give a good account of any force thkt will 
probably come against us." 

On the 2d of August, the day of the investment of the fort by St. 
Leger's forces, Lieutenant-Colonel Mellon, of Colonel Weston's 
regiment, arrived with 200 men and two bateaux of provisions and 
military stores. They reached the fort just as the enemy appeared 
on the skirts of the forest; so near were they that the captain who 



47 

commanded the boats was made prisoner. The command now 
consisted of 750 men all told; six weeks' provisions, and a fair 
supply of ammunition; but the garrison was without a flag. 'Twas 
then and there, by these unskillful but heroic hands, that the standard 
which was to be the first to be lifted unfurling the Stars and Stripes 
in victorious battle was made in the garrison out of odds and ends 
of clothing. Pieces of white were taken from shirts, the blue was 
from a camlet cloak of Captain Swartout's, and the stripes from a 
woman's scarlet mantle. 

On the 3d of August a flag was sent into the fort from the enemy 
with messages full of vaunting threats and lavish promises, all of 
which produced no effect upon the brave and intrepid commander. 
Hostilities commenced on August 4th, the Indians concealing them- 
selves behind trees and by their fire greatly annoying the men 
employed upon the parapets. 

It was at this time St. Leger in vain overconfidence sent his mes- 
sage to Burgoyne that the fort v/ould be his directly, and that they 
would speedily meet as victors in Albany. 

St. Leger's appearance in the valley had roused the yeomanry to 
a sudden and full comprehension of the peril of their situation, and 
they forthwith gave the command of the militia to Nicholas Herki- 
mer, who had served in the French war and been made a brigadier- 
general the year before. He was a brave soldier and a Christian 
man, who had used his best efforts to dissuade the Indians from tak- 
ing part in the conflict and had sent to Unadilla a mission to this end, 
which the Indian chief Brant had taken pains to oppose and thwart. 

In reply to a proclamation issued by him for a force to go to the 
relief of Fort Stanwix and its brave defenders, every patriot heart 
was stirred, and though some of his own family refused to join him, 
and even went over to the side of the enemy, he succeeded in assem- 
bling together at Fort Dayton, now Herkimer village, on the 4th 
of August, 1777, about 800 fighting men. Each farmer seized his 
trusty musket and, leaving his plow in the furrow, hurried to the 
rendezvous. The need was urgent and the time for preparation so 
brief that the Scotch-Irish of Cherry Valley, always foremost, nearly 
lost the opportunity of taking their share in the expedition of succor. 

The principal rallying point was German Flats, and here gathered 
Colonels Klock, Visscher, Cox, Bellinger, with whatever number of 



48 

their regiments, as well as volunteers, could be collected; there also 
came the Committee of Safety of Tryon County. 

Through information given by Molly, the sister of Joseph Brant 
and wife of Johnson, St. Leger was made acquainted with this pro- 
jected movement of the patriots, who were by this time hurrying 
forward without order or protection against flanking parties. 

Thomas Spencer and others of the friendly Oneidas who were 
with General Herkimer besought him to send out scouts and move 
cautiously, and he promised to do so; but when, on the 5th of 
August, at Whitestone, he urged this course he was opposed by 
Colonels Cox, Paris, and others, who advised more haste, and was 
even taunted with cowardice. Great as he knew the danger must 
be, and feeling as he did that he was as it were the father of his 
company, he reluctantly gave the order for an immediate advance, 
for this taunt was too much for his fiery -spirit. 

By the orders of St. Leger, who knew he must at all hazards pre- 
vent any defeat at this juncture, scouts had been placed all along the 
trail, and Joseph Brant, with a force of picked men, had taken a 
position in ambush about the semicircular ravine by the Oriskany 
Creek. 

The message for assistance sent Colonel Gansevoort at the fort 
eight miles away had not been replied to. The morning was hot 
and sultry when, at 10 o'clock, the force of devoted men entered 
the fatal ravine. Suddenly the forest rang with the crack of rifles 
and the war-whoop of the savage, and the guards both front and 
rear were shot down by a volley which seemed to come out from 
every tree of the forest. The fierce Mohawks sprang from their 
coverts tomahawk in hand, the rear-guard led by Colonel Fischer 
was cut ofi" entirely, most of the force being taken prisoners and 
many of them killed on the spot. By the fatal circle formed by the 
enemy, the baggage and ammunition wagons were also cut off and 
separated from the main body. General Herkimer fell wounded in 
the early part of the action, a ball having killed his horse and shat- 
tered his leg just below the knee. When it was suggested he should 
be removed from the field he refused, saying, " I shall face the 
enemy," and his saddle being placed at the foot of a tree he sat 
upon it, coolly smoking his pipe while he gave his orders with tell- 
ing effect. His men standing each one alone behind a tree would 



49 

fire his piece, and, then, before he could reload, the watchful savage 
would immediately rush upon him with the tomahawk. Noting this 
manceuvre, the wary general immediately ordered them to fight in 
couples, so that when the enemy would hurry to murder the one 
who had just fired he Avould be shot down by the other. 

This made the fray more terrible for the foe, though the loss of 
the patriots was severe enough. Colonel Cox, who had that morn- 
ing accused General Herkimer of cowardice, and Captains Davis 
and Van Sluyck were killed, and the whole patriot force was terribly 
broken up. 

On the enemy's side the Indians had become disheartened by the 
loss of so many of their warriors, and the "Johnson Greens," a 
body of men from the Dutch and German settlements,were ordered to 
their help. The conflict now became fiercer than ever, as the men on 
each side recognized one another as neighbors, kindred, and even 
brothers. The closer the relationship the more deadly the en- 
counter. There were no British soldiers, Hessians, or professional 
fighters there, but New York men, children of the soil almost 
exclusively. There were no lines, no fort, no artillery, but men 
fighting hand-to-hand with knife, musket, spear, hatchet, foot-to- 
foot, swaying and struggling over the bodies of the dead and slip- 
ping in their blood. The vale of Oriskany became the scene 
of the maddening slaughter ; neighbors slew their neighbors, and 
brothers clasped brothers in deadly embrace. Never, even at Ther- 
mopylje, did men stand a charge with more dauntless courage — a 
courage born of that grand spiritual force which had made liberty to 
their ancestors as dear as life itself. Three men charged upon 
Captain Gardenier, so history tells us, who transfixed them one by 
one with his pike. 

Captain Dillenback also being attacked by a party beat one to 
the ground, shot another, and bayoneted a third before he fell 
himself. 

For six long hours, under a burning sun, without even water to 
refresh themselves, this battle waged without cessation, except when 
a severe thunder-storm came down with such fury that the com- 
batants were compelled to seek shelter. 

At length firing was heard in the distance from the fort,— the 
answer to the long-delayed message of Herkimer, — and the sound 



so 

was as welcome to the patriots as it was astounding to the enemy. 
Soon Colonel Willett, with his force, appeared on the field of battle. 
The Indians, taking fright, raised the cry of" Oonah " (retreat) and 
fled precipitately; so also did the Tories and the "Greens," amidst 
the shouts and hurrahs of the militia of Tryon County, who were 
left masters of the field. Colonel Willett captured twenty-one 
wagon-loads of baggage, clothing, and provisions, and five British 
flags, which he bore back in triumph underneath the folds of the 
Stars a7id Stripes, — the flag those heroes had made with their own 
hands. 

A descendant of one of those who fought at Saratoga said to the 
writer : "It was fitting that this battle should be the occasion for the 
first raising of the American standard in victory. If the Declaration 
of Independence was the inception of a new nation, the bloody 
ravine of Oriskany was the place of its birth." 

Colonel Paris was captured by the Indians and afterwards cruelly 
murdered, as were other prisoners, after they reached Colonel But- 
ler's quarters. Major John Frey, of Colonel Klock's regiment, was 
wounded and taken prisoner; his own brother, who was in the 
British service, attempted to take his life. 

Almost every member of the Committee of Safety, and, in fact, 
every prominent man in the Mohawk Valley, was killed. Death 
was in every house. After the battle. Dr. Petrie, one of the sur- 
vivors of the Committee of Safety, though himself severely wounded, 
dressed General Herkimer's leg and saw him sent on a litter to his 
home. It was there in that old house, which is still standing, as I 
am told by one whose ancestor was in Colonel Willett's regiment, 
that this brave Christian soldier died, with the open Bible in his 
hand. He died not from the wound being fatal, but from unskillful 
amputation. 

The number of the Provincial militia in killed was 200, exclusive 
of wounded and prisoners, and the loss of the enemy was equally 
severe if not greater, especially among the Indians. Neither at 
Waterloo nor Austerlitz was the slaughter greater in proportion. 

Lafayette once declared that there were only skirmishes, no bat- 
tles, in the American Revolution. As compared with the battles in 
Europe this is true; but with the meager population of our country 
in 1777 these "skirmishes " had a significance equal to the actions 



SI 

at Lodi, Austerlitz, Leipsic, and Waterloo. Colonel Willett's sally 
from the fort with 200 men and 50 more to guard the light iron 
three-pound cannon was every way successful, and the charge was 
made with such celerity that Sir John Johnson, who was in his tent 
divested of his coat, had no time to even put it on before his camp 
was attacked and his force routed, as were also the Indians ; and all 
Sir John Johnson's baggage, papers, order-books, etc., were cap- 
tured. For this exploit Congress presented Colonel Willett with a 
vote of thanks and an elegant sword. 

So also, in appreciation of the great services rendered by General 
Herkimer, Congress requested the Governor and Council of New 
York to erect a monument to his memor}'-, but this was not done ; 
but the State, however, did honor to itself by giving his name to one 
of the counties formed out of the division of Tryon County. 

After the battle Colonel Samuel Campbell, then senior officer, 
reorganized the shattered patriot force and led them in good order 
back to Fort Dayton. 

For sixteen days St. Leger lay before Fort Stanwix, which, in 
spite of peremptory demands and many lies, Colonel Gansevoort 
refused to surrender. 

Colonel Willett, at tremendous risks, made a rapid march to 
Albany to obtain relief, which through Philip Schuyler's effort was 
granted, Benedict Arnold promptly offering his services, and on 
August 20th, with 800 volunteers, the latter reached Fort Dayton, 
and issued, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States 
of America in the Mohawk Valley, a proclamation denouncing St. 
Leger as a "leader of banditti, robbers, and murderers." 

When on the 24th, with an added force of militia, he arrived at 
Fort Stanwix, St. Leger had raised the siege, and in great fear of 
his Indian allies, who had already commenced to rob his camp, he 
fled, leaving his tents, artillery, and stores spoils to the garrison. 
His men threw away their packs in their flight, and St. Leger's 
rout was complete. 

And so this key to the heart of the original union, this the very 
eye of the campaign of 1777, was held secure for the patriot cause. 

And in a moral sense how great was the victory when we remem- 
ber that the threatened and almost expected Tory uprising for the 
king never occurred, and instead disaffected yeomanry came out as 



52 

brave patriots, and gave such a check to St. Leger as forced Bur- 
goyne to take the risk which brought on him the defeat at Benning- 
ton and finally his surrender at Saratoga. This once famous general 
found himself in a sorry dilemma. He had been sent to America by 
a new ministry, whose existence was largely staked upon his suc- 
cess. Generals Howe and Carleton had been superseded, great 
hopes had been entertained of his success, and to a remarkable 
degree his progress from Canada to Saratoga had been triumphal. 
But now he had been effectually circumvented by General Schuyler. 
Western New York was lost, his troops had been driven from New 
England, and his only chance was to effect a union with Sir Henry 
Clinton at Albany. 

We all know the result. The leaders in New England were 
jealous of General Schuyler, and a faction in Congress often oper- 
ated prejudicially to the American cause. 

General Gates, a rival of the Commander-in-Chief, was sent to 
supersede the brave New Yorker, who nevertheless remained and 
gave what assistance he might to his successor. 

Sir Henry Clinton had made his way up the Hudson, burning 
towns on his route, when he learned of the capitulation at Saratoga. 
An army was lost, and the fact became patent that now only arti- 
fice and diplomacy could be successful. Pride on the part of the 
British king alone prolonged the contest, but the convention at Sara- 
toga had assured the event. 

The battle of Oriskany had turned the scale. While the battle 
of Bennington was won by Yankees, that of Oriskany by Dutch 
and German yeomanry, the militia at Saratoga came from both of 
these alike. " One of my grandfathers carried his musket there 
from Worcester County, Massachusetts," I heard one of Jersey's 
patriots say ; and almost every family in New England can tell a like 
story. 

Now one thing seems plain to us all : a greater meed of honor is 
due than has yet been given to the heroes of German Flats. Reason 
is, they have always been a clannish people, often speaking a different 
language and disrelishing English literature. The population in that 
region has been in too great a degree left out of our American his- 
tories. It should be our pride as Sons of the Revolution to see that 
this fault, if it exists, is corrected. 



53 

Oriskany was well named in the Indian tongue the " place of 
nettles." Surely out of these nettles of danger brave Nicholas 
Herkimer plucked the Rose of Safety, for not only the Mohawk 
Valley, but the whole nation. In these days of foreign innovations 
and indifferentism, when party spirit strains fierce and hard upon 
the conscience and free-will of the citizen, let us, the sons of Revo- 
lutionary sires, stand firm in the faith of those brave Scotch, Dutch, 
and Huguenot fathers, and maintain to the uttermost and ever un- 
impaired the matchless institutions v/hich they have handed down 
to us. 




WASHINGTON'S MARCH FROM TRENTON TO MORRIS- 
• TOWN IN 1777. 



By Andrew D. Mellick, Jr. 



Some Facts and Incidents hitherto UnpubUshed. 

Read before the Sons of the Revohition, Monday, Dec. 3, 1888, by 
William O. McDowell. 

With the turn of the year 1776-77 important events rapidly suc- 
ceeded each other. Naturally one would say that the history of this 
time will make trite reading; nevertheless, I shall hope in these 
pages to present some incidents and occurrences that have escaped 
the attention and knowledge of the ordinary Revolutionary student. 
It is not the purpose of this paper to tell over again the well-known 
stories of Assanpink and Princeton, but rather to dwell on the many 
minor scenes and events connected with the march of the Conti- 
nental Army from the 2d to the 6th of January, 1777, to relate 
many details of interest that historians generally have been forced 
to pass by in order to dilate on the noted engagements that at that 
time entirely changed the current of American history. While the 
foundation and continuity of my narration cannot be preserved with- 
out mentioning the actions of the 2d and 3d of January, yet what- 
ever of interest and value this paper may possess will be due to the 
lesser historical gleanings it contains, which may be said to be the 
result of an intimate knov/ledge of the locality in which the scenes 
are depicted, and a lifelong acquaintance with its people. 

The Christmas holidays of the year 1776, which will ever be 

54 



55 

remembered as one of the great epochs in American history, 
completely changed the aspect of the Revolutionary contest. Sir 
William Howe and Lord Cornwallis, astounded at the news of the 
capture of Rahl's command at Trenton, were at once alive to their 
error in thinking that American independence was a matter of the 
past. Cornwallis, abandoning his proposed home voyage, hastily 
marched his troops towards the Delaware, being joined on the way 
by Count Donop's force from Bordentown. The British column, 
five thousand strong, reached Trenton late on the afternoon of the 
2d of January. Washington was already there with nearly an equal 
number of men, although his army was largely composed of undis- 
ciplined, ununiformed militia. Intent on re-occupying, if not re-cap- 
turing, New Jersey, he had on the 30th of December again crossed 
the Delaware. The British advanced in two columns to the north 
side of Assanpink Creek, but from the opposite shore the Ameri- 
cans' dogs of war barked from their iron throats a dubious welcome. 
The enemy's attempt to force a passage of the stream was defeated 
by the effective manner in which General Knox handled his artillery, 
which was advantageously planted on the high southern bank of the 
creek. Owing to the lateness of the hour, Cornwallis retired to the 
rear of the town, on the Princeton road, deciding to await daylight 
before renewing the attack, and when, as he boasted, " he would 
catch that old fox, Washington." The British general's confidence 
in what the morrow would bring forth proved to be misplaced. 
From time immemorial a fox has been the most uncertain of all 
game, and Lord Cornwallis had quite neglected to remember that it 
was not uncommon for that wary animal, when just about trapped, 
to quietly steal away. 

Frederick the Great, on being told that a distinguished general 
had never made a mistake, replied, " Then he must liave fought very 
few campaigns." If Washington could ever be charged v.-ith a lack 
of military judgment it was when he placed his army in the position 
it occupied on this night of the 2d of January. Realizing his dan- 
gerous situation he was full of anxiety. Should an engagement fol- 
low the dawn, defeat would mean the destruction or capture of the 
entire Continental force, the troops being so disposed as to render a 
retreat impracticable. An engagement was certainly to be expected, 
the chances of success lying almost wholly with the enemy, as 



56 

opposed to the raw levies of the Americans was the flower of the 
British army. Washington's decision was promptly reached — a 
decision that was probably as important in its immediate results, 
and in its future effect upon the destinies of the country, as was any 
he was called upon to make during his entire career. The British 
had left at Princeton the Seventeenth, Fortieth, and Fifty-fifth in- 
fantry regiments and three squadrons of dragoons. They were to 
join Cornwallis in the morning; but could they be reached by the 
Americans before that time, their destruction was not impossible. 
Washington, calling his generals together, disclosed his plan, which 
was to move quietly around the enemy's flank and, marching rapidly 
on Princeton, strike a telling blow in that unexpected quarter. 

It has been said that this strategy was the suggestion of General 
St. Clair; be this as it may, the movement was quickly executed. 
Silently sending off" the impedhiienta in the direction of Bordentown, 
the camp-lires were brightened, and pacing sentinels were left on 
guard, whose frequent challenges deluded the outposts of the enemy. 
Soon after midnight the ragged but heroic army broke camp, St. 
Clair's brigade leading the way. The other commands following, 
they pushed out far east of and around the sleeping British soldiers. 
In the deep stillness of the night, along a narrow new road through 
the woods, the troops silently defiled over the frozen ground, their 
departure entirely unsuspected by the enemy. In speaking of 
Revolutionary armies such terms as corps, divisions, and brigades 
are not always applied in the sense of their present uses. To men- 
tion a division does not imply a command made up of the full num- 
ber of regiments and brigades. There were at least eleven generals 
with this little force that was stealing through the dark gloom of the 
forests towards Princeton, although the entire army barely aggre- 
gated a modern brigade. The number of commissioned officers was 
also out of all proportion to the non-commissioned officers and 
enlisted men. As a rule the line, field, and staff of a regiment or 
battalion had under them but a handful of soldiers. So far as I can 
learn, of this devoted band but three organizations of foot were 
completely uniformed and equipped. One was the Dover Light 
Infantry, clad in green, faced with red, which was a militia company 
raised in Kent County, Delaware, and commanded by Captain 
Thomas Rodney. The second was the ist Delaware battalion under 



57 

the brave Colonel Hazlett. This command had already made a 
name for itself at the battle of Long Island, but at a fearful cost. Its 
strengthjwhich at the outset had been a full thousand, now numbered 
but one hundred and five men. As its spirited and distinguished 
colonel rode by the side of his troops, encouraging the soldiers of 
his skeleton command, he little thought that in a few short hours, 
with the coming of the dawn, he was to be called upon to lay 
his young life on the altar of his country. The third uniformed 
organization was Colonel William Smallwood's battalion, a mere 
fragment — barely 70 men — of what in the preceding June had 
been a noble regiment, iioo strong, composed of the finest youth 
of Maryland. On the 27th di./ of the preceding August, at a 
point in Brooklyn where now Fifth Avenue and lOth street 
intersect, the men of this command, together with their comrades 
from Delaware, held the enemy in check at a severe loss to them- 
selves, while the rest of the regiments of Lord Stirling's division 
were making their escape from a most dangerous position. Three 
times they rallied and charged the enemy, knowing the result must 
be their own sacrifice, yet willing to suffer at so great a cost in 
order that while holding the British at bay their comrades could 
make good their retreat. The combat over, 256 of these Maryland 
lads were either lying among the dead and dying, or, with their 
general. Lord Stirling, were in the hands of the enemy. The 
carnage had not been in vain, as the flying Americans were saved 
from complete destruction. Washington, choking with em.otion, 
witnessed this bravery from a little redoubt within the present 
boundaries of Court, Clinton, Atlantic, and Pacific streets, and the 
courage and self-devotion of this handful of young soldiers was the 
admiration of both armies. The only mounted force under Wash- 
ington at this time was the First Troop Philadelphia Light Horse, 
commanded by Captain Morris. It was a militia company com- 
posed of twenty-one gentlemen of independent fortunes, whose ser- 
vices during their tour of duty were invaluable to the Commander- 
in-Chief. They furnished him with couriers, guards, patrols, and 
videttes, and when discharged, on the 23d of January, Washington 
tendered them his sincere thanks for the effective aid they had ren- 
dered the army. With each discharge was a testimonial which 
asserted that though the members were gentlemen of wealth they 



58 

had shown a noble example of discipline and subordination, and in 
several actions had manifested a spirit and bravery which would ever 
do honor to themselves and be gratefully remembered by their chief. 

Among the artillery that was jolting and rumbling over the 
stumps and frozen ruts on this cold January night was a New Jer- 
sey command officered partly by men from Somerset County. It 
was known as the Eastern Battery of New Jersey State troops, and 
a month before had been assigned to Colonel Proctor's artillery 
regiment in General Knox's brigade. Early in the war, owing to 
the exposed situation of New Jersey, and to its lying betM'een the 
two prominent cities that were likely to be the strongholds of the 
enemy, it was found necessary to organize a force for the protection 
of the inhabitants. These troops were volunteers from the county 
militia and were known as " New Jersey levies " and " State 
troops." Though primarily intended for home protection, they 
were required, when called upon, to serve beyond the borders of the 
State. The first organizations of these levies authorized by the 
Provincial Congress were two artillery companies which were 
formed in March, 1 776, and were stationed in the eastern and west- 
ern divisions of the State. Among the officers of the eastern bat- 
tery -were Captain Frederick Frelinghuysen and Second Lieutenant 
John Van Dyke. This battery did excellent service at Trenton on 
the morning after Christmas. Its men also won the commendation of 
their general for the manner in which they served their guns at the bat- 
tles of Princeton and Monmouth. Just now Captain Frelinghuysen 
was campaigning in a familiar country, he having graduated from 
the College of New Jersey six years before, at the early age of six- 
teen. There were other " Princeton men " with the Continental 
troops, among them two of Washington's personal staff — Surgeon 
Benjamin Rush of the class of 1 760, and Colonel Joseph Reed,whose 
parchment was dated in 1757. Von Moltke claims that the most 
important factor in the science of war is geography; these two staff 
officers, because of their local knowledge of the vicinity, are said to 
have contributed greatly to the brilliant success of that momentous 
winter's day, which a rising sun and this little army was about to 
make historic. 

The morning of the 3d of January was clear and cold. A white 
hoar-frost sparkled and glittered on the fields, and the branches of 



59 

the trees were gemmed with buds of ice. Soon after daybreak the 
people in the vicinity of Princeton were avvakened by the noise of 
musket-shots. File-firing commenced pattering like drumbeats, 
followed by a regular fusillade of platoons ; then came the roaring 
of cannon. The citizens soon discovered that war in its full flower 
was at their very doors. General Mercer, with a small detachment 
from the main column, came upon the British advance at Samuel 
Worth's mill, near where the King's Highway crosses Stony 
Brook, about one mile west of the village. He would have been 
overwhelmed, but Washington, with the Continentals and militia, 
came to his support. A sharp and decisive engagement followed ; 
in less than thirty minutes victory perched upon the American ban- 
ners, and the enemy, horse and foot, were in full retreat. I do not 
propose to weary the patience of my listeners with an account of this 
famous battle. Able historians have made us all familiar with the 
miraculous escape of Washington when exposed to a cross-fire of 
friend and foe ; have told over and over again of General Mercer's 
having been pinned to the earth by the fatal thrusts of British bayo- 
nets ; of how the smoke rose above the combatants and hung in air, 
a clear white cumulus cloud, as if weighted with the souls of those 
who had just closed their eyes on the radiance of that winter morn ; 
of the appearance presented by the British commander, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Mawhood, who in the heat of the action rode at the 
head of his men on a little brown pony, with two springing spaniels 
playing before him ; of Knox's training his artillery on Nassau 
Hall to dislodge a portion of the 40th regiment which had taken 
refuge in the college building; and of the many other incidents 
crowded within the short space of time occupied in completely rout- 
ing the British forces. Taking into consideration the number of 
troops engaged, no action during the war was so fatal to American 
officers. One general, two colonels, one major, and three captains 
were killed ; but then, as has been learned, officers were so numerous 
in that little army that even in so short an exposure to the enemy's 
fire that number of casualties was fairly to be expected. All told, 
the American loss was but 30, while the British left 100 dead on the 
field and nearly 300 men in our hands as prisoners, including 14 
officers. Fifty of the captives were sent into Pennsylvania, the rest 
being brought along with the army. 



6o 

Among the enemy's fatally wounded was a young Scotchman, 
William Leslie, a son of the Earl of Leven and a captain in the 
17th regiment of foot. He was of a military line, being the 
descendant of that old Earl of Leven who was a soldier under 
Gustavus, and who, at the battle of Marston Moor, boldly rode at 
the head of his tough Scotch Covenanters to oppose the cavalier 
troopers, massed by the thousands under the silken standard of 
Prince Rupert. It is a singular circumstance that when Captain 
Leslie received his death wound so far from home and kindred, the 
only two x\mericans knowing of him andhis people were in the imme- 
diate vicinity, one being in the army against which he was contend- 
ing. He fought his last battle almost within the shadows of the 
walls of a college whose president, John Witherspoon, was the life- 
long friend of his parents. Before being called to America Mr. 
Witherspoon had been a prominent Presbyterian minister at Paisley, 
a Scottish town not far from Melville House, the seat of the Earl 
of Leven. Captain Leslie's mother, the Countess, was a devout 
adherent to the kirk of Scotland, and had the interests of Presby- 
terianism much at heart. That she might keep informed as to its 
progress in America, for a number of years after her old friend had 
been called to the presidency of the College of New Jersey she 
continued with him a religious and friendly correspondence, and 
ever held him in high esteem. Strange as it may appear, when 
Leslie fell he almost at once received aid from another friend of his 
parents. Surgeon Benjamin Rush, of Washington's staff, had 
gained his medical education at the University of Edinburgh. 
While in Scotland he became acquainted with the family of the Earl 
of Leven. The young student's refined and polished manners, 
together with the peculiarly fascinating conversational powers with 
which he was endowed, made his frequent visits to Melville House 
always welcome. After his return to America he was ever held, 
especially by the Countess, in affectionate remembrance ; this feel- 
ing was heightened to tender and grateful regard by the doctor's 
attention and services to her wornded son. 

When the heat of the engagement at Princeton was over, Wash- 
ington and his staff while crossing some fallen ground discovered a 
party of soldiers supporting an injured officer. Upon inquiring and 
learning his name and rank. Dr. Rush, who was in the general's 



6i 

suite, thus addressed his chief: "I beg your Excellency to permit 
this wounded officer to be placed under my care, that I may return, 
in however small a degree, a part of the obligations I owe to his 
v/orthy father for the many kindnesses received at his hands while I 
was a student at Edinburgh." The request was, of course, granted. 
Rush was quickly out of the saddle, and with the aid of an orderly 
placed Leslie in a farmer's wagon that was collecting the wounded. 
The young soldier at once received surgical treatment, and every 
care and attention was bestowed on him until his death, which 
occurred during the following afternoon. 

The Americans had no cavalry to follow the fleeing enemy, and 
the foot soldiers were in anything but a condition for pursuit. After 
the fight Washington was sorely tempted to push on to New Bruns- 
wick, in the hope of securing the British stores. It was impossible, 
owing to the condition of his men ; for much of the past thirty-six 
hours they had been marching and fighting, many of them had had 
neither breakfast nor dinner, and the entire army was completely 
exhausted. He was thus forced to seek the hill country, where his 
victorious troops could, without molestation, obtain the rest and 
refreshment they so much needed. Re-forming his column, the gen- 
eral pressed on along the King's Highway to Van Tilburgh's Inn at 
Kingston, which stood, and until lately was still standing, on the 
north side of the thoroughfare. Here, turning to the left on the 
narrow, rocky hill-road, he marched his wayworn soldiers down the 
valley of the Millstone. The first intimation that Cornwallis had 
of the affair at Princeton was the booming of cannon on the break 
of that cold day which he had expected to devote to catching " that 
old fox." He was much chagrined at Washington's escape, but v/as 
soon in full pursuit, the rear-guard, under General Leslie, which had 
rested at Maidenhead, being in the van. A stern chase is always a 
long one. Much time was lost in crossing Stony Brook, the bridge 
having been destroyed. On nearing Princeton a cannon-shot from a 
small redoubt brought the British to a halt, their generals thinking 
that the Americans had fortified themselves in the town. This gun 
was fired by a few militiamen who had then hastily retired, but au 
hour was lost before Cornwallis discovered this and was again on the 
march. Having great fears for his military chest and supplies at 
New Brunswick, he hurriedly passed on through Princeton and 



62 

Kingston, without learning that at the latter place his foes had filed 
to the left. 

Meanwhile, let us follow Washington, who was for the first time 
penetrating Somerset County. An auspicious advent ; arrayed in the 
Continental blue and buff, as he sat his horse with all that martial 
dio-nity peculiar to himself, he came as a conqueror, welcomed by the 
enthusiastic greetings of the populace. The little army toiled along 
the east bank of the Millstone, the men in high spirits over the 
experiences of the twenty-four hours just past, but yet so weak 
from cold, hunger, and fatigue that they defiled along in dispersed 
order, with heavy steps, guns carried in whatever way was easiest, 
and their eyes almost glued with sleep. Many fell out by the way, 
and stretching themselves on the frozen ground sought that repose 
which exhausted nature refused longer to await. Not a few of the 
men were barely decently clad, much less amply protected from the 
wintry air, while, sad to relate, some were without covering for 
their feet. It is told that Washington, while riding by the side of 
his troops, noticed that William Lyon, a Continental soldier from 
Middlesex County, was without stockings and almost, if not entirely, 
without shoes. As he trudged sturdily along his bare and bloody 
feet left their marks on the ice and gravel of the roadway. The 
general, checking his horse, tapped Lyon gently on the shoulder 
and said: "My brave boy, you deserve a better fate." "Ah," 
replied the plucky young soldier, " there is no danger of my feet 
freezing as long as the blood runs." This Revolutionary hero sur- 
vived that hardship and many others, not dying till 1841. Rumbling 
along in the midst of the column were country carts and wagons 
containing that sad contingent of all victorious armies, the wounded 
— poor wretches who rested wearily against the side of the wagon- 
bodies, their countenances making mute appeals for human sym- 
pathy, some with arms in slings, some with heads bandaged, some 
with limbs and jaws shattered, while others, lying in the straw, were 
pale and wan, with eyes fast glazing. 

Much of interest appertaining to this march to Morristown is to be 
learned from the manuscript diary of Captain Thomas Rodney, of 
the Dover Light Infantry, which is preserved by his great grandson, 
J. M. C. Rodney, of Coolspring, Wilmington, Delaware. This 
officer's company was embodied into a regiment with the Philadel- 



63 

phia Light Infantry of four companies under the command of 
senior Captain Henry. When the van of the American army reached 
the bridge which then spanned the Millstone in front of the resi- 
dence of Christopher Hoagland, near Griggstovvn, the British 
cavalry appeared in force on the opposite bank. Just then the con- 
dition of Washington's men was such that he desired neither to pur- 
sue or be pursued, so, riding forward, he ordered Rodney to halt 
and break up the bridge. The captain recites that on this being 
done the enemy was forced to retire. This would lead one to suppose 
that the river's depth at that time was much greater than now, as 
the present volume of water would hardly prove a bar to the passage 
of mounted men. Commissaries were sent forward to notify the 
inhabitants of the coming of the troops, and directing that food be 
prepared for their refreshment. It is said that this demand met 
with a fair response, and when the army at dusk reached Somerset 
Court House, Millstone, where it encamped for the night, a con- 
siderable number of rations were in readiness. 

Washington and some of his staff quartered at the residence of Mr. 
John Van Doren, just south of the village ; the house is still standing, 
as is the barn in which the general's horse was stabled. Mr. Van 
Doren's military guests were not always of so distinguished a 
character. Some months later it was soldiers of the enemy that took 
possession of this old homestead. Upon their approach the men 
of the household thought it wise to disappear, but old Mrs. Van 
Doren pluckily stood her ground and defied the intruders. She 
refused to give up her keys or tell where the family treasures were 
secreted, whereupon the brutal soldiers, after ransacking the house, 
hung her up by the heels in the cellar. After their departure she 
was released by her neighbors, but not until she was black in the 
face and almost lifeless. 

During the night many laggards came into camp, and in the 
morning the column was again pushing northward, crossing the 
Raritan at Van Veghten's Bridge, near the present Finderne railway 
station. Here, as Rodney states, Washington was again tempted to 
march on New Brunswick, but realizing that his troops must have 
repose, he finally abandoned the project. Moving up the river, at 
Tunison's tavern, now Fritts's, the army filed to the right and con- 
tinued over the hills to Pluckamin, which was reached during the 



64 

afternoon. The wounded were distributed in the houses of the 
village; the Lutheran Church, as a temporary prison, received the 
captured men, while in the Matthew Lane house, now owned by the 
Cornell family, the thirteen captured officers, it is said, were placed 
under guard. Poor Leslie was no longer a prisoner, his soul hav- 
ing taken flight v/hile the wagon in which he and other wounded were 
carried was descending the hill below Chamber's Brook, at the out- 
skirts of the village. The troops encamped on the bleak hillside south 
of Pluckamin, the top of which, as Rodney writes, was covered with 
snow. Torn with the shock of conflict, weak from need of nourish- 
ment, and enfeebled by cold and exhaustion, this place of security, 
together with the prospect of rest, was most grateful to the little 
army. Commissaries had been busy; within a few hours the camp 
was pretty well supplied v.ith provisions, and before the drums beat 
tattoo nearly one thousand men who had been unable to keep up on 
the march rejoined their commands. When the darkness of night 
closed around Pluckamin Mountain, the ruddy glow of camp-fires 
shone among the trees near the foot of its northern slope. The 
flames, flashing up, illumined groups of soldiers, stacks of arms, and 
tethered horses; near by, baggage-wagons, caissons, and cannon 
were parked in military lines, while here and there the shadowy 
forms of sentinels could be distinguished. There is no such com- 
fort as fullness and warmth after cold and hunger. It was not long 
before most of the tired men were full length at the foot of the trees, 
forgetting the travail of a soldier's life in needful sleep. 

Sunday, the 5th day of January, was a great day for Pluckamin. 
The news of Washington's being in Bedminster had rapidly spread, 
and while it was yet early, on the roads and lanes leading to the vil- 
lage numerous parties of country people could be seen, all hurrying 
to visit the soldiers and learn for themselves the latest neAvs of the 
campaign. Throughout the entire day the place was astir with an 
animated multitude, and excitements of all kinds ruled the hour. 
Squads of infantry and artillerymen were everywhere. Farmers' 
wagons, laden with provisions, came rolling in from the neighbor- 
hood of Peapack, Lamington, and the valley. Stern, brown-visaged 
officers in heavy boots and tarnished uniforms were mounting here, 
dismounting there, and clattering through the streets in every direc- 
tion. Foraging parties were being dispatched; couriers and express 



65 

messengers rode off in hot haste ; horses neighed, men shouted, and 
on all sides were handshakings and congratulations. The martial 
instinct of the people seemed alert ; eyes sparkled and all hearts 
beat quickly. Every little while brought new arrivals of country 
people, and the details of the famous victory must be gone over 
again and again ; although the war was yet young, the soldiers had 
plenty to tell of marches and counter-marches, of camp life and 
bivouacs, of attacks, routs, wounds, and hardships. And then the ne\y- 
comers were carried off to the Lutheran Church,which was surrounded 
by a cordon of sentinels, and through the doors and windows, what a 
brave show! — two hundred and thirty British soldiers; broad- 
shouldered, big-boned Scotchmen, stalwart grenadiers and dragoons, 
brilliant with color — caged lions, who looked with gloomy stares 
upon the inquisitive and rejoicing Americans, whom the experiences 
of the past few days had taught them to better appreciate as soldiers 
and freemen. And so the day wore on. Everywhere was motion 
and confusion. Eoff's tavern kept open table, and on its porch 
Continental and militia officers of all grades mingled. It was 
cling-clang ! cling-clang ! all that Sunday on the anvil tif the village 
forge; for from sunrise to the gloaming honest John Wortman and 
his brawny assistants were busy with hammer, sledge, and tongs, 
shoeing army horses and repairing army wagons. " Captain 
Bullion," too, — John Boylan, Pluckamin's first store-keeper, — was 
robbed of his usual Sunday quiet, being obliged to expose his 
wares for the benefit of impatient soldiers and visitors. Surgeons 
hurried from house to house; drums beat for guard-mount; sub- 
alterns marched reliefs to the different sentry-posts, and the din of 
war was in the very air. Amid the bustle and animation, in fancy I 
can see Aaron Mellick, — or Malick,as hespelledhis name, — my great- 
grandfather, clad in his Sunday breeches of blue cloth, his red waist- 
coat with flapping pockets showing from under an amply skirted 
coat adorned with metal buttons. He had come down from the 
"Old Stone House," two miles away, with the hope of learning 
something of his boy John, who had fallen into the hands of the 
enemy at the disaster of Long Island; but that poor lad was still in 
the grip of Provost Cunningham, and knew nothing of the happy 
close of a campaign which had commenced for him rather inglori- 
ously. At the breaking out of the Revolution, Aaron Malick was 



66 

beyond the age required for service in the militia: but he was an 
active patriot, a member of the Bedminster Township Committee of 
Observation and Inspection, and furnished the sinews of war. He 
did more than that, for he buckled the armor on his young son 
John — a lad of but eighteen — and sent him off with his blessing to 
fight the battles of his country. His younger brother Andrew also 
did excellent service during the war as a captain in the ist Sussex 
regiment. In after years Aaron i*Ialick often told the writer 
(G. G. F.) of the aspect Pluckamin had presented on those memor- 
able days when it was occupied by the heroes of Trenton and 
Princeton. He especially delighted in reminiscences of the generals 
whose names grew greater as the war progressed — of Greene, tall 
and vigorous, with the air of one born to command; of Sullivan, 
alert and soldierly; of Knox, whose broad, full face beamed with 
satisfaction; but, above all, of the conspicuous figure of Washington, 
who seemed a king among men as he moved amid the throng with 
high-born eye, lofty but courteous port, and a calm, strong face 
reflecting a mind full of the tranquiF.ity of conscious power. ^Tradi- 
tion mentions the Cornell house, before referred to as still standing, 
as having been the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief. He 
spent much of the early part of this Sunday in preparing his report 
of the battle of Princeton and of the movements of the army since 
crossing the Delaware. On the completion of the dispatch. Captain 
Henry was detailed to carry it at once to Congress at Philadelphia; 
this left Captain Rodney as next senior in rank in command of the 
light infantry regiment. 

Visitors to Pluckamin on that eventful Sunday were treated to 
an unexpected affair of ceremony. About midday a detachment of 
forty men from Rodney's regiment marched into the village and 
drew up in line with its center opposite the entrance to the build- 
ing in which lay the dead body of Captain Leslie — probably Eofi's 
Tavern. The young British officer was about to be buried with the 
honors of war, the light infantry being selected as escort because of 
its soldierly appearance and superior uniform. The detachment was 
commanded by Captain Humphreys, it ha^■ing been turned over to 
him by Rodney, who had not considered himself sufficiently familiar 
with the details of a burial ceremony. At the beat of muffled 
drum and wail of fife the men presented arms as the corpse was 



67 

borne from the house to the flank of the line. The escort then broke 
into column of fours and, reversing arms, marched in slow time and 
with solemn step to the Lutheran church-yard, where it filed to the 
left, forming in line opposite an open grave which had been dug 
near the head of Johannes Moelieh, the writer's great-great-grand- 
father. There were wet eyes and true grief at that sepulcher, for 
Dr. Rush was not the only mourner present. Among the citizens 
and military clustering about the bier were the captured British 
officers, whom Washington had generously permitted to be present 
in order that they might bid a final adieu to a comrade-in-arms who 
had been much beloved. And then the solemn hush was broken by 
the deep voice of the chaplain saying, " I am the Resurrection and 
the Life, saith the Lord." As the simple service continued the body 
of the young warrior descended to its gravelly bed, the troops mean- 
while resting their bent heads on the butts of their muskets, the 
muzzles being pressed to the ground. When the icy clods fell on 
the rude coffin the escort fired three volleys over the open grave, and 
then, shouldering arms, marched away, the drums and fifes striking 
up a lively tune on reaching the highway. The prisoners were 
returned to their quarters, the crowd dispersed and again contrib- 
uted to the village tumults, leaving Leslie to sleep in his remote and 
retired tomb until its deep silence shall be broken by a majestic 
reveille, ushering in that eternal day which shall proclaim the full 
brotherhood of man, and in which such distinctions as friend and 
foe shall be no more forever. 

Captain Rodney tells that these high miUtary honors were accorded 
because of the desire of the American army to pay " due respect to 
bravery, tho' in an enemy." Leslie's gallantry in action at Prince- 
ton had won the admiration of his opponents ; indeed, this may be 
said as of the entire 17th British regiment. In the height of the 
engagement Washington, on witnessing the courage and discipline 
of this command, could not forbear exclaiming to his officers, " See 
how those noble fellows fight ! Ah, gentlemen, when shall we be 
able to keep an army long enough together to display a discipline 
equal to our enemy's? " The attentions of Surgeon Benjamin Rush 
to the son of his friends in Scotland did not end with the funeral. 
He marked his grave with a brown headstone inscribed, " In mem- 
ory of the Honorable Captain William Leslie, of the 17th British 



68 

Regiment, son of the Earl of Leven in Scotland. He fell January 
3d, 1777, aged 26 years, at the battle of Princeton. His friend 
Benjamin Rush, M. D., of Philadelphia, caused this stone to be 
erected as a mark of his esteem for his worth, and respect for his 
noble family." This headstone stood for nearly sixty years before 
it succumbed to the gnawing tooth of time. About the year 1835 
Professor John D. Ogilby, of Rutgers College, when in Scotland, 
was requested by the then Earl of Leven to find and, if necessary, re- 
mark the grave. Upon the Professor's return to America he applied 
to the writer's father, Andrew D. Mellick, for information as to 
where the officer was buried. Together they visited Pluckamin and 
had the present stone set up, reproducing the original inscription. 

This soldier's grave is a connecting link between our quiet Somer- 
set village and the busy life of one of the most gifted Americans of 
the last century. When Dr. Rush died, at the age of sixty-eight, 
few men in the United States were better known, or were held in 
higher esteem for genius and learning, or were more sincerely 
beloved for philanthropy and good works. When at Pluckamin 
with Washington's army he was thirty-one years old, his Princeton 
degree having been gained at the early age of fifteen. In person he 
was above the middle stature, with a slender but well-proportioned 
figure. His combined features bespoke a strong and an active 
intellect, and though his whole demeanor was thoughtful and grave, 
expressive blue eyes illumined a highly animated countenance. Dr. 
Rush was a man of wide and varied knowledge, with a talent for 
imparting it to others that was singularly felicitous. It is claimed 
that no one long remained in his presence without feeling conscious 
of an intellectual refreshment; and a contemporaneous writer has 
recorded that " his conversation was an Attic repast, which, far from 
cloying, invigorated the appetite of those who partook of it." This 
distinguished surgeon must have left Pluckamin immediately after 
the burial of Captain Leslie, as on the following day he dated a 
letter from Bordentown, and on the same afternoon was summoned 
and went to Princeton to attend upon the dying General Mercer. 
Before the end of the month he had taken his seat in Congress, 
which was then sitting in Baltimore. His figure soon became a 
familiar one to Somerset people, as in April he received the 



69 

appointment of Surgeon-General to the Middle Department, and in 
July was made Physician-General of the Army. 

Another interesting incident connected with the stay of the army 
at that time in Pluckamin was the arrival in camp of the gallant 
Captain John Stryker's troop of Somerset horse, laden with spoil 
from the enemy. Cornwallis, in his hurried march towards New 
Brunswick, was so unfortunate as to disable a number of his bag- 
gage-wagons. He left them at the side of the road in charge of a 
quartermaster with a guard of 200 men. Captain Stryker, though 
having with him but twenty troopers, resolved upon the capture of 
these stores. In the darkness of night he distributed his small force 
in a circle, completely surrounding the camp. The guard was sud- 
denly astounded by a volley of musket-shots and the whistling of 
bullets, while from under the black arches of the bordering trees 
came loud and repeated shouts as if from a countless host. Demoral- 
ized by recent defeats the men incontinently fled, thinking that they 
had been attacked by a large force of the Americans. Their fright 
was not so much caused by the roar of musketry as by the unearthly 
yells of the lusty troopers which so suddenly broke the stillness of 
the night. Captain Stryker was not long in so repairing the wagons 
that they could be hauled to a place of safety; he lost no time in 
making his way to Washington's camp with his treasures. The joy 
of the troops was unbounded on discovering that the wagons con- 
tained woolen clothing, of which the men stood in sore need. 

Early on the morning of the 6th of January Pluckamin lost as 
suddenly as it had gained the distinction of being the headquarters 
of Washington's army. Soon after sounding reveille the drums 
beat assembly and the men were under arms. The different com- 
mands filed out of camp and, forming into column, passed through 
the village, taking up their line of march northward. Our oft-quoted 
diarist has given us the formation. A small advance-guard led the 
way, followed by the humbled English officers ; then came the light- 
infantry regiment, swinging along in column of fours ; next, the 
prisoners, marching in a long thin line and flanked by Colonel 
Edward Hand's Pennsylvania riflemen ; after them rode the doughty 
and intrepid Knox, sitting squarely on his horse, and followed by 
his artillery brigade as the van of the main column. Distributed 



70 

alongside tlie extended line were the mounted general and staff-ofE- 
cers. Rested and refreshed, it was probably the most peaceful and 
satisfactory march experienced by the Continental Army since leav- 
ing Hackensack — three months before — with Cornwallis at its 
heels. We may presume that precautions to guard against surprise 
were not considered necessary; it is not probable that squads of 
men were thrown out on the flanks, or that scouts and skirmishers 
ranged far in advance. Secure from pursuit, the little army in good 
heart trailed slowly along the narrow road, breaking in upon the 
country quiet with rattle of scabbard and snort of charger, with 
champ of bit and jingle of harness, with rumble of baggage and 
gun-wagons and the crunch on the frozen ground of thousands of 
marching eet. On reaching the cross-roads, now Bedminster, the 
advance turned to the right. Passing over the north branch of the 
Raritan River the army climbed the Bernard Hills, awakening the 
echoes of their shaggy woods with the unaccustomed sound of drum 
and bugle. With frequent halts the column moved on through 
Vealtovvn, Bernardsville, and New Vernon, until just before sunset 
it reached Morristown, where we, after having piloted Washington 
and his men in safety through Somerset County, may leave them to 
go into winter quarters. 




MEMBERSHIP ROLL. 



Date of 
Initiation. 



A ddress. 



; Abney, John Rutledge 20 Cortlandt St., New- York. 

■ Aborn, Robert W 118 E. 38th st., New- York. 

1 Adams, Charles H i6 E. 67th st.. New- York. 

, Allen, Ethan 115 Broadway, New-York. 

Angell, Malcom Henry 50 6th ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

; Anthony, Richard Amennan 591 Broadway, New- York. 

Astor, Wm. Waldorf 7 E. 33d St., New- York. 

1 Badger, Wm. Whittlesey 1 28 W. 34th st. , New- York. 

I Baldwin, Walter Sherman 114 W. 70th St., New-York. 

Barnard, Horace 26 E. 35th St., New- York. 

1887 Barrows, Henry H Windsor Hotel, New- York. 

*Bartovv, Morey Hale, died 1886. 

Belden, Wm 810 sth ave.. New- York. 

■ Belknap, Robert Lenox S Gramercy Park, New- York. 

Benjamin, Arthur Bedell Stratford, Conn. 

Benjamin, Fred'k A Stratford, Conn. 

Benjamin, Geo. Powel! 104 Chambers St., New- York. 

Benjamin, John 11 E. 33d St., New-York. 

Bishop, David Wolfe 13 Madison ave., New- York. 

Bissell, Pelham St. George i55 W. 58th st, New-York. 

I Bissell, Wm. H 51 E. 20th st.. New- York. 

Bixby, Robert Forsyth 32 Nassau St., New- York. 

Bloodgood, Robert Fanshawe 8 W. 21st St., New- York. 

' Bolton, James Clinton 115 Broadway, New-York. 

Bowen, Clarence Winthrop 251 Broadway, New- York. 

Brightman, Henry Jackson 78 Lexington ave. , New- York. 



72 
Date of 
Initiaiioi. Natne. Address. 

1S89 Brown, Edward Flint 36 E. 69th st., New- York. 

1888 Browne, Henry Huffman 184 Madison st., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

1886 Biillus, Albert 51 Wall St., New-York. 

1887 Butler, Charles, LL. D 78 Park ave., New- York. 

1S84 Burrall, Y. k.,M. D 48 W. 17th st., New-York. 

1S89 Butterfield, Daniel Cold Spring, Putnam Co., N. Y. 

1887 Byington, A. H Norwalk, Conn. 

1887 Cadwalader, John Lambert 36 Wall st.. New- York. 

1888 Cannon, Henry White 18 E. 45th St., New- York. 

1888 Carpender, John Neilson 57 AVhite St., New- York. 

1888 Carpender, William 39 W. 33d st.. New- York. 

1S88 Carpenter, Reese Mount Kisco, N. Y. 

1885 Carr, Wm. Henry Fifth Avenue Hotel, New- York. 

1886 Carroll, Edward, Jr 10 Wall st.. New- York. 

1S87 Casey, Edward P 28 W. 34th st.. New- York. 

18S8 Chauncey, Henry, Jr .Garden City, N. Y. 

1888 Cheesman, Timothy Matlack, M. D 46 E. 29th st.. New- York. 

1887 Chrystie, John Albert 23 Nassau St., New- York. 

1888 Chrj'stie, Thos. Mackaness Ludlow, M. D 216 W. 46th st., New-York. 

1886 *Chi-ystie, Thos. W., died 1888. 

1886 Clarkson, Ash ton Crosby 136 E. 73d St., New- York. 

1889 Clarkson, Banyer 15 W. 4sth St., New- York. 

1884 Clarkson, Floyd 39 Broadway, New- York. 

1888 Clarkson, Geo. Taylor 48 E. 66th St., New- York. 

1885 Clai-kson, John Van Boskerck 39 Broadway, New- York. 

1557 Clearwater, Alphonso Trumpbrour Kingston, N. Y. 

i885 Coale, Samuel Chase Rutherford, N. J. 

1SS6 Coe, Charles A 4 E. 46th st. , New- York. 

1887 Constant, Samuel Victor 405 W. 21st St., New- York. 

1558 Coykendall, Samuel D Rondout, N. Y, 

1887 Crane, Charles Nicoll 119 W. 4Sth st.. New- York. 

1888 Crosby, Henry A 16 Broad St., New- York. 

18S6 Crosby, Livingston 118 E. 24th sL, New-York. 

18S4 Crosby, Wm. B 120 Broadway, New- York. 

13S7 Curtiss, George E 277 Potter Building, New- York. 

1885 Darlington, John Lacey, Jr 6 Bowling Green, New- York. 

i38s Darlington, Wm. Lacey, M. D 8 Vannest Place, New- York. 

1886 Davidson, George Trimble 45 Broadway, New- York. 

1889 Davis, Augustus Plummer Pittsburgh, Pa. 

1889 Delafield, Albert 49 Exchange Place, New- York. 

1885 Delafield, Clarence Mobile, Ala. 

18S8 Delafield, F. P 475 5th ave.. New- York. 

1885 Delafield, Tallmadge 95 Liberty St., New- York. 

1884 Delavan, Charles H 136 W. 22d St., New- York. 



73 

Date oj 
Initiation. Name. Address. 

Delavan, Christian S 136 W. 22d St., New-York. 

I Dickerson, Edward NicoU 7 Beekman St., New- York. 

Dickerson, Edward NicoU, Jr 64 E. 34th st. , New- York. 

. Dickerson, John S New- York Yacht Club, New- York. 

Diefendori, Menzo 200 W. 56th st , New- York. 

Dominick, Marinus Willett 74 Broadway, New- York. 

' Doudge, James R 35 W. 45th st., New- York. 

Douw, Charles Gibbons Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

Downing, Silas , Windsor Hotel, New- York. 

*Drexel, Joseph W., died March 25, 1888. 

Drowne, Henry Russell 147 W. 36th St., New- York. 

1 Drowne, Henry Thayer 147 W. 36th St., New-York. 

Edsall, Thomas Henry Greenwood Springs, Colorado. 

Elsworth, Edward Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

Emerson, John W Windsor Hotel, New- York. 

Evans, Thomas Grier 49 Nassau St., New- York. 

Fairchild, Benjamin T 84 Fulton St., New- York. 

Fairchild, Samuel W 84 Fulton St., New- York. 

Fairchild, Thomas B Stratford, Conn. 

' Farley, Gustavus, Jr 64 South st.. New- York. 

Farrand, Oliver M 3^^ Maiden Lane, New- York. 

I Feeter, Jacob W 128 Broadway, New-York. 

Ferris, Morris Patterson Garden City, L. I. 

Fitch, John 261 Broadway, New- York. 

Fincke, Charles Louis 106 Montague st., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Floyd, Augustus 42 Pine St., New- York. 

Floyd, John G 79 and 81 William St., New- York. 

Floyd-Jones, George S 51 Wall St., New-York. 

Floyd, Nicoll, Jr 26 Broad St., New- York. 

^Foster, James A., died March 10, 1888. 

Fowler, Robert Ludlow 29 W. 9th St., New- York. 

Fowler, Thomas Powell 39 E. 68th st., New- York. 

Fry, George Gardiner Rye Neck, Wes. Co., N. Y. 

I Fuller, Levi K Brattleboro, Vt. 

1S84 Gallup, C. Van Eversdyk Calumet Club, New-York. 

Gardiner, Asa Bird, LL. D 31 Nassau St., New-York. 

■ Gawtry, E. Harrison 18 W. nth St., New- York. 

■ Gedney, Frederick G 31 Nassau St., New- York. 

; Genet, Albert Rivers 132 Nassau st, New-York. 

Genet, George Clinton. . . .132 Nassau st. and Albemarle Hotel, New- York. 

I Gerry, AUston Audubon Park, N. Y. 

1885 Gerry, Elbridge T. (life member) 261 Broadway, New- York. 

' Gibson, George Rutledge 49 Broadway, New- York. 

1S87 Gibson, James Renwick, Jr 77 Cedar st, New- York. 



n 

Date of 
Initiation. Name. Address. 

I Gibson, Robert Renwick 77 Cedar St., New- York. 

\ Goodwin, James Junius 45 W. 34th St., New- York. 

i886 Goold, Clarence W 137 W. i22d st, New- York. 

; Gray, Geo. P 43 W. i8th St., New- York. 

Greene, Richard Henry 10 E. 47th st. , New- York. 

; Greene, W. W 10 E. 47th st., New-York. 

Griffin, Francis B 21 E. 41st St., New- York. 

Griswold, Chester 23 W. 48th St., New- York. 

Grubb, Edward Burd Edgewater Park, N. J. 

Guernsey, Egbert, M. D 526 5th ave., New- York. 

Guild, Frederick Augustus 14 Remsen St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hackley, Caleb Brewster 16 Nassau st, New- York. 

Hackstaff, Wm. G 55 W. 27th st.. New- York. 

Hale, Matthew Albany, N. Y. 

Hall, Frederick J 3 E. 14th St., New- York. 

Hall, Henry 30 W. 34th st. New- York. 

I Halsey, Geo. A 170 Broadway, New- York. 

Hamilton, Wm. Gaston 105 E. 21st st, New- York. 

Hamilton, Robert Ray 48 W. 38th st.. New- York. 

Hamilton, Schuyler Park Ave. Hotel, New- York. 

Harper, Franklin Franklin Square, New- York. 

Hart, Charles E 330 State st, New Haven, Conn. 

Hart, Frederick J New Haven, Conn. 

Hatch, Arthur Melvin 14 Nassau St., New- York. 

*Hatch, Nath. W. T., died May 8, 1888. 

Hawes, Gilbert R 120 Broadway, New- York. 

1887 Hawkes, E. McDougall 173 5th ave., New- York. 

Hawthorne, Julian Scotch Plains, N. J. 

Hayes, R. Somers i8 Wall st, New- York. 

Healey, Warren M 1478 Broadway, New- York. 

Hecker, Geo. F 44 W. 37th st. New- York. 

1885 Hedden, Edward L 38 W. 49th st. New- York. 

Hedden, Josiah 286 Madison ave.. New- York. 

Herrick, John Van Boskerck 167 W. 129th st, New- York. 

Higgins, Eugene 137 5th ave.. New- York. 

Hill, John L 155 6th ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hodges, Alfred 469 Bedford ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Holcombe, W. Y.,M.D 54 E. 25th St., New- York. 

1885 Holt, George C in Broadway, New- York. 

Hopson, Francis Johnstone i Gramercy Park, New- York. 

Houghton, George W. W 133 E. 84th st , New- York. 

Howell, Francis B Elizabeth, N. J. 

Howell, Henry W Elizabeth, N. J. 

1887 Howell, Henry W., Jr Elizabeth, N. J. 



75 

Date of 
Initiation. Name. Address. 

1835 Howell, Richard Stockton 16 E. sjthst., New- York. 

1885 Hubbard, Grosvenor D 35 Wall st, New- York. 

1887 Humphreys, A. W 45 William St., New- York. 

I Humphreys, Rev. Frank Landon, Mus. D Garden City, L. I. 

Humphreys, Willard C 71 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Huntington, Austin 17S W. 58th St., New- York. 

Huntington, Frederick Jabez 175 W. 58th st. New- York. 

Hurlburt, Percy Dakin 570 Monroe st., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

i Imlay, T. B. S 157 Madison st., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

IngersoU, Rev. Edward V., D. D 485 Greene ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Ireland, John B 170 Broadway, New-York. 

I Ireland, John DeCourcy 15 E. 47th St., New- York. 

Ireland, Robert Livingston 15 E 47th st. , New- York. 

Jackson, Ernest Henry 29 Grace Court, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Jackson, Joseph C 138 E. 34th st., New- York. 

Jackson, Wm. H 825 Madison ave. , New- York. 

Jay, John Clarkson, Jr., M. D 17 W. 46th st.. New- York. 

1887 Jay, William 48 Wall st.. New- York. 

1885 Jewett, Rev. A. D. L Fordham, N. Y. 

1887 Johnson, Samuel William Rye Neck, Wes. Co., N. Y. 

1887 Johnson, William Samuel Rye Neck, Wes. Co., N. Y. 

Jordan, John Powers 102 Broadway, New-York. 

Kent, Edward Henry 536 5th ave. , New- York. 

King, Horatio C 46 Willow St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

King, John AIsop Great Neck, N. Y. 

Kinney, John Coddington Hartford, Conn. 

Knickerbacker, Henry 830 5th ave., New-York. 

Knight, Charles Huntoon, M. D 20 W. 31st St., New- York. 

I Lathrop, Francis 80 Washington Square, New-York. 

Lathrop, George Parsons New London, Conn. 

1885 LeRoy, Henry W loi E. 19th St., New-York. 

Livingston, James Duane 5 E. 27th st.. New- York. 

Livingston, Philip L 5 E. 53d St., New- York. 

Locke, Rev. Jesse Albert 34 Varick st., New-York. 

Lockwood, Howard 145 W. 58th St., New- York. 

Lockwood, Isaac Ferris 288 Lexington ave.. New- York. 

Lockwood, James Betts White Plains, N. Y. 

1885 Luckey, C. C 348 W. 56th st.. New- York. 

Lummis, Charles A 35 E. 30th st. , New- York. 

1 Lyons, Grossman 51 Wall st.. New- York. 

Malcolm, Philip Schuyler : Portland, Oregon. 

Marsh, Charles Baumann 274 W. 128th st, New- York. 

Martin, Charles Boman Montclair, N. J. 

1885 McDonald, Frank V Pacific Bank, San Francisco. 



76 



Date of 
Initiation. Name. Address. 

McDowell, Charles E 120 Liberty St., New- York. 

McDowell, Wm. O 120 Liberty St., New-York. 

Martin, Wm. Vail 2 W. 34th St., New- York. 

Meigs, Charles A 411 Washington St., New-York. 

^Merchant, John, died July 7, 1886. 

Merwin, Aug. W Wilton, Fairfield Co., Conn. 

*Mer\vin, Rev. Sam'l J. M., died September 12, 1888. 

Miller, Chas. Benjamin 102 Chambers st., New-York. 

Miller, Geo. Ernest 102 Chambers St., New-York. 

Miller, J. Bleecker 44 W. 9th St., New-York. 

Montgomery, James Mortimer in Wall st.. New- York. 

Montgomery, Richard Malcohn 87 Pine st.. New- York. 

Morfit, Clarence 38 E. 67th St., New- York. 

Morgan, Rev. Brockholst 15 E. 19th St., New- York. 

Morris, D wight Bridgeport, Conn. 

18S4 Morris, Gouverneur 80 Broadway, New-York. 

1885 Murray, Charles H 115 Broadway, New- York. 

Murray, Logan C i Broadway, New-York. 

Murray, Russell 100 E. 17 st, New- York. 

Myer, Albert J Lake View, Erie Co. , N. Y. 

Mygatt, John Tracy 327 W. 46th St., New- York. 

Nicholson, Chrystie Few 427 Broadway, New- York. 

Nicoll, Henry Denton, M. D 51 E. 57th St., New- York. 

18S9 Olcott, J. Van Vechten 173 W. 73d St., New-York. 

1888 Olyphant, John Kensett 50 W. 9th St., New- York. 

i Olyph.-mt, Robert 26 E. 46th St., New-York. 

1885 Owens, James 154 E. 57th St., New- York. 

1887 Parkin, Henry Grenville 49 5th ave., New- York. 

Parsons, Albert Ross Garden City, L. I. 

' Patterson, Jacob M 152 Stanton st.. New- York. 

; Peabody, Charles A., Jr 2 Wall St., New- York. 

i Peck, Theodore Safford Burlington, Vt. 

Peet, John Northrop 105 Montague St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

: Perkins, Chas. Elwell 164 Congress st.., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

1887 Perkins, Edward C 115 Broadway, New-York. 

; Perry, Wm. Sumner 25 W. 34th St., I'Jew-York. 

; Pierrepont, John Jay i Pierrepont Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I Pomeroy, Geo. Eltweed Toledo, Ohio. 

I Pinto, Francis E 235 President St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I Pond, Charles H 23 Wall St., New- York. 

I Poole, Murray Edward Ithaca, N. Y, 

; Popham, George Morris 118 Waverley Place, New- York. 

. Potter, Henry L Linden, N. J. 

I Potter, Orlando B 26 Lafayette Place, New- York. 



77 

Date of 
Initiation. Name. Address. 

I *Potts, Fredk. A., died Nov. 9, 1888. 
\ *Potts, George H., died April 28, 1888. 

I Pratt, Henry 52 2d Place, Brooklyn, New- York. 

1 Prentice, Robert Kelly 9 W. i6th st. , New-York. 

I Pruyn, John V. S. L. (life member) Albany, N. Y. 

I Pumpelly, Josiah Collins Morristown, N. J. 

1 Ray, James 145 Broadway, New- York. 

. Redding, C. H. E 294 Broadway, New- York. 

; Reed, Theo. Freylinghuysen Spring Valley, Rockland Co., N. Y. 

' Revere, Aug. Le Fevbre Morristown, N. J. 

Riker, John Jackson 45 Cedar st., New-York. 

I Rockwood, Geo. Gardner 248 W. 43d st., New- York. 

i Roe, \Vm. James Newburg, N. Y. 

Roosa, Daniel B. St. John, M. D 20 E. 30th st., New- York. 

Runk, Rev. Edward J Cold Spring, N. Y. 

Salisbury, Richard Louis 42 E. 65th St. , New- York. 

18S7 Sandford, Elliot 95 Nassau st. New- York. 

Sandford, Jared Mount Vernon, N. Y. 

Satterlee, Douglas Rathbone Clinton Bank, N. Y. 

Satterlee, Edward R 36 Cedar st. , New- York . 

Satterlee, F. LeRoy, M. D 21 W. 19th St., New- York. 

Satterlee, Geo. B 42 Broadway, New-York. 

Satterlee, Samuel K Rye, Wes. Co., N. Y. 

Satterlee, Walter Y. M. C. A., New- York. 

Schuyler, Spencer D 56 W. 38th St., New- York. 

Seeley, Henry W 158 W. 45th St., New- York. 

Sheldon, Wm. Crawford, Jr 2 Wall St., New- York. 

1887 Short, Edward Lyman 11 E. 29th St., New- York. 

Shrady, Jacob 194 Broadway, New- York. 

Shrady, John,i1'/. D 65 W. 126th St., New- York. 

Shrady, William 194 Broadway, New-York. 

Sillcock, John J 142 W. i6th St., New- York. 

Smedberg, Edmund Morton 45 Wall st. , New- York. 

Smith, Rev. Dr. J. Tuttle 17 W. 18th St., New- York. 

Smith, Thos. West 229 W. 130th St., New- York. 

Sprague, Chas. E 1271 Broadway, New- York. 

Squier, Frank 66 Duane St., New- York. 

Stanton, F. McMillan Atlantic Mine, Houghton Co., Mich. 

Stafford, Wm. Frederick Buckingham Hotel, New- York. 

Stanton, John R 76 Wall st. , New- York. 

Starr, Henry Famsworth Middleton, Conn. 

Stevens, Alex. Henry 62 Wall St., New- York. 

1884 Stevens, John Austin Newport, R. I. 

Stone, Wm 243 Broadway, New- York. 



78 

Date of 
Initiation. Name. Address, 

■ Storm, Thomas 41 W. 8ist St., New- York. 

' Storm, Walton 120 Broadway, New- York. 

Strobel, Edward Henry U. S. Legation, Madrid, Spain. 

I Strong, Theron G. . . 38 W. 52d St., New-York. 

I Stryker, Wm. Scudder Trenton, N. J. 

1 Suydam, John R 14 E. 41st st., New-York. 

Swan, Benj. L., Jr 8 Broad st.. New- York. 

Swartwout, John H Stamford, Conn. 

Swartwout, Satterlee Stamford, Conn. 

Talbot, Theo. B 36 New St., New- York. 

Tallmadge, Frederick S 165 Broadway, New- York. 

*Tapp, Ed. Wm., died February 3, 1888. 

Tapp, Edward Wright 15 Burling Slip, New- York. 

Taylor, Samuel R 120 Broadway, New- York. 

Thompson, Alex. R., Jr 201 Montague st., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Thompson, Wm. R 55 Liberty St., New- York. 

1885 Thompson, Von Beverhout, M. D in W. 43d St., New- York. 

1887 Thornall, C. Eugene 1133 Lexington ave., New- York. 

Thornall, Ed. Voorhees 1133 Lexington ave., New- York. 

Tomlinson, John Canfield 4° Wall St., New- York. 

Tomlinson, Theo. E 39 Broadway, New- York. 

Townsend, Arthur Farragut 15 Park Row, New- York. 

Tremain, Henry Edwin 167 Broadway, New- York. 

Trenchard, Edward 152 W. 57th St., New- York. 

Turner, Thomas Morgan 109 Duane St., New- York. 

Tuttle, Ezra B 494 Bedford ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Tyler, Henry Whitney 1202 loth ave., New- York. 

Tyler, Mason W 167 Broadway, New- York. 

Vail, Chas. Montgomery 173 Congress St., Brooklyn, N. Y, 

Vail, James Wm 252 Carlton ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Valentine, Abraham B 10 E. 41st St., New-York. 

1885 Vanderpoel, John A 224 Madison ave., New- York. 

Van Vechten, A. V. W 55 William st, N. Y. 

Van Winkle, Edgar Beach 117 E. 70th St., New-York. 

Varnum, James M 31 Nassau St., New-York. 

Ver Planck, Wm. Gordon 42 Pine St., New- York. 

1887 Wainwright, John Tillotson 23 E. 28th st. , New- York. 

Wakeman, Abram, Jr 102 Front st., New-York. 

Ward, Sylvester L. H. (life member) 65 Wall st., New- York. 

Warley, Felix N. Y. Club, New- York. 

Warren, Asa Coolidge 239 W. 21st St., New- York. 

Webb, Alex. Stewart, LL. D 15 Lexington ave.. New- York. 

Webb, William Seward, M.D 680 5th ave. , New- York, 

Weston, Rev. Dan'l Coney, D. D 2 Rutherford Place, New- York. 



Date of 
Initiation, 



79 



Name. Address, 

Wiggins, John Ward, Jr 171 Broadway, New- York. 

Wilson, Henry A 315 E. 28th St., New- York. 

Wood, E. T " 41 Broadway, New- York. 

Wood, Samuel Seymour 120 Broadway, New- York. 

Wooster, J. E 41 J^ W. 4sth st, New-York. 

Wright, ^.Y.,M.D 57 W. loth St., New- York. 

Wyeth, Geo. Edward 5 E. 27th St., New- York. 

Wyeth, Leonard J., Jr Riverdale, N. Y. 

Wylie, Geo. Sandford Morristown, N. J. 

^^ Total membership, to date, 333. 



31n ^emoriam* 



DaUof 
Initiation. Name. 

. John Merchant July 7, 

MoREY Hale Bartow 

I Thos. W. Chrystie 

Ed. Wm. Tapp Feb. 3, 

887 James A. Foster March 10, 

884 Joseph W. Drexel March 25, 

886 Geo. H. Potts April 28, 

885 N. W. T. Hatch May 8, 

1 Rev. S. J. M. Merwin Sept. 12, 

888 Freu5k. a. Potts Nov. 9, 



1886. 



